Immaterium
by PeterN
Summary: The crossover between Warhammer 40,000 and Digimon. The powers of Chaos are unleashed upon the universe, where they go death and destruction follows in their wake. Rewrite in progress. Status: 4 chapters re-written.
1. Immaterium: Breakout

**

Immaterium: Breakout

**

A room was getting closer to him as he walked along the normally bleak stone grey metal corridor at his steady pace, although it was now tinged with a barely flashing red light. No, this was the room. The room in which he may well die shortly if he played this wrong. Enough deference must be shown, but not so much as to be snivelling. Bearers of bad news rarely survived, especially when the bad news could easily be attributed to them. 

He paused momentarily when he reached the door, mentally scolding himself for showing the weakness of fear. The plain stone grey door seemed identical to all of the other doors, all of which were barely noticeable from the wall to anyone new here. But almost everyone knew who was in this room, and to visit him was not often a good thing. He had to search his mind hard to think of the last time he had been here bearing good news, too long ago, far too long. He shook his head a fraction to clear away the distracting thoughts and looked at the bleak grey door once more. 

Quickly he knocked politely on the door, three short raps on the palely coloured metal, and walked in closing the door behind him with all the calm he could muster once given permission to come in. No turning back now, it was too late to avoid it now. Not that he had anywhere he could run to that he wouldn't be found as soon as someone higher up realised what had happened. Then again no one had ever tried it to his knowledge, so he might just have had a slim chance while everyone was thrown off guard. 

* * *

Dimensions away, at the same time, the digidestined were on their way to face Myotismon, and endure what would they hoped, with any luck, be their final fight for survival, finally letting them go back home. Night was fast approaching and they had found a small clearing in the forest in which to camp till morning. Joe had drawn the short straw and stayed on guard while they others fell asleep, leaving him alone, as usual, with the scenery, the noises of the night, and his paranoid thoughts. Thoughts of impending doom mixed with something almost akin to ready acceptance of their fate. 

_Why do I always draw the short straw? Why do I always get stuck on guard when we're in the middle of a forest? Why is it especially one so close to Myotismon. I mean, it isn't like I'll be able to wake them up, I'll be guarding the whole night. Just you see if you aren't Joe. They won't take over their watch shift. Yet again it'll be ol' reliable Joe doing the entire watch._ Joe slumped his head forward into his knees, his hand automatically pushing his glasses back to the top of his nose as they threatened to fall off, with a sigh of annoyance. "Just once I'd like not to be everyone's doormat." He said quietly to himself. "Just once." 

"That… can be arranged…. Joe…." Came a soft, sweet, almost silent whisper from the dark patch of trees to Joe's left. He spun around to face the voice that sounded just centimetres away and stood up while taking a single step backwards away from it with instincts born of being hunted down for so long. 

"Wh-who are you?" He asked, the fear obvious in his voice and on his face, his eyes darting around in front of him as a small bead of sweat trickled down his forehead despite the cold, trying to look for anything other than trees. Nothing, he could only see trees, just the big black blob of trees in front of him. A quick glance backwards and he saw that the campsite was still there. A second step backwards as the fear of an unseen enemy slowly tickled up his spine towards his brain. Another pang of fear and another step backwards when he realised it had said his name. 

With a quick yelp of surprise he suddenly realised that this fear, he almost liked it. He couldn't understand, how could he enjoy the fear, he had spent most of his life running from it. Surely, there was no way that he could like it. Doubt began to form in his mind rapidly, maybe that was why he was scared of so much; maybe his subconscious had been trying to create more for him. A twig cracking in front of him brought his mind back from its internal monologue and back to the fear. The fear that he almost wanted to suffuse him. To cover him like a warm blanket. To wrap him up in itself till he was immersed in it. 

"A friend who knows all your secrets. All your desires, Joe… I could help you. Help you to not be everyone's doormat…." the melodic voice sang into his ears lulling him almost instantly into what looked like a peaceful slumber at a quick glance, only the slight but rapid movements of his limbs and his rapidly darting eyes behind his partially misplaced glasses giving a hint that something was wrong beyond his total languid face. 

"A friend…." He murmured quietly as the dreams began to take a surreal and altogether unfriendly twist. 

* * *

At a sedate and what he hoped was a professional pace he walked through the open doorway and quietly closed the door behind him, then walked forward a few more paces before stopping a meter or two in front of a large black desk that seemed to swallow up what little light had escaped the same effect from the walls. Everything in this office appeared to be the same pitch black colour. The desk, the walls, the door, the floor, the ceiling, and even the clothes of the man sitting in the pitch black chair behind the desk. He cleared his throat once and then waited the seemingly agonisingly long seconds it took for the other man to talk. 

"Ah, Mr Patterson. What is it?" the man seated at the desk asked, moving his head up from whatever he had been looking at before, his gaze quickly taking in the standing, and possibly slightly trembling man in front of him. Mr Patterson gulped at the thought of what his superior would do. He tried to scrutinise his face, but it was virtually invisible in the black gloom of the small office, a mere blob of lighter colour against the blob of a suit and chair. Maybe an invisible reminder that his death, any of their deaths, would be just as invisible, or more accurately ignored. Everyone in here was officially dead as it was; no one misses those who are already dead. 

"We have a problem sir." Mr Patterson said with a bow of his head that went slightly too far down for his liking after he finished. "The Immaterium Containment Field was shut down for appro…" 

"WHAT?!?!" The man behind the desk rose up with a furious shout as one hand hit into the desk with a thud, completely out of character for the usually sedate man, sending his chair crashing to the floor. The sharp clatter of metal and stone rang out against the air in the few seconds of silence as his glare almost tried to pierce Mr Patterson's eyes and through them his very soul. A slight intake of worried breath was covered by the still fading noise as he prepared to explain the situation and face whatever punishment his superior deemed necessary. 

"I shut down the ICF for approximately five minutes while carrying out some maintenance work on the coffee machine next to it." He stared down at the floor which was also the same pitch black light consuming colour as the walls, ceiling, desk and everything else in this room. He felt a shiver of fear run up his spine and gently closed his eyes, not wanting to see the fatal blow he was certain would come. 

"Do you realise what you have done?" Mr Patterson looked up; his boss was seated again, much calmer now. He might just live through this with some luck, as long as the rage wasn't being focused through a calm exterior, or if he wanted to make an example of what such negligence could and would bring. 

His mind flitted to an image of a room virtually never seen by anyone in this complex and feared by all. A room that contained a heavily guarded teleporter array that would send the unlucky victim straight into the heart of the Immaterium. This was the greatest punishment the place had devised thus far, and he had seen three such punishments in his long time here, he had no desire to become the fourth he knew of. Death was far more preferable. 

"Yes sir…. Eight Greater Daemons escaped as well as several hundred minor daemons, presumably in service to the Greater Daemons." 

"Did we take any damage as they escaped?" 

"No sir. They escaped to another dimension." 

"That is some measure of good news. Imagine what would have happened if they had destroyed the ICF…" the sentence was left hanging, an attempt at allowing Mr Patterson to grasp the full extent of damage that could have been done, as if he had not already "What dimension have they escaped to?" 

"A minor one sir. One known as the Digital Dimension." 

"Good. Seal it off. I want none of those daemons to escape. It will take them several days at least to harvest enough energy from the locals to create a rift. Do you understand me Mr Patterson?" 

He waited barely two seconds for the start of an affirmative nod or response before carrying on. "As good as your work has been, Mr Patterson, you are not indispensable. We represent the pinnacle of the achievements of countless trillions of worlds. We also represent their, and everyone else's, best hopes against Chaos. You are only alive now because of your previous excellent record. Consider this your first, and final, formal warning." 

"Y-yes sir!" he stammered as he hurried out of the office, pausing and blinking his eyes for a few moments as he moved into the relatively bright stone grey surroundings that most of the complex had. Leaning back against the warm wall he breathed a heavy sigh of relief, almost giggling in gladness that he had survived with just a warning, albeit a serious one. A quick moment of concentration cleared his face of all traces of his previous worry and then joy, it would not do for anyone to see one of their superiors either panicking or smiling. 

He turned round and headed towards the central hub of activity at his normal relaxed pace, glad that the raging red lights that had snapped on after his mistake was picked up by the automated internal security system had now dimmed to a more amicable amber colour. With luck they would soon return to the familiar bluish yellow colour the usually were. 

They would need to work around the clock to modify the ICF to affect yet another dimension so quickly, but to build another ICF for this Digital Dimension would take months. One of the problems with the ICF was that it was only ever designed to contain a single dimension, the Immaterium, but as it expanded and consumed others the machine had needed to be modified to cover more and more as outposts somehow crept through on occasions. 

There was a private fear among some that if this over-stretching of the system continued there would come a point when the field was too weak and would collapse in its entirety. But that was a very well guarded fear, known only to those responsible for monitoring the actual field, and ignored completely by the highest ranking members who had absolute confidence in the ICF. Personally he doubted the collapse would happen, the rate at which the field was expanded was too slow, and the new wave would most likely be in power well before the time in which the current ICF was incapable of being jury-rigged into working any more. 

The entire thing would be rebuilt and designed with the containment of many dimensions in mind once the new wave of thinkers made it into the highest positions. As the one of those unfortunate people who could ultimately bar the responsibility for any failures of the ICF until then he was very glad about. For now, however, the high-ups still remembered the days when the ICF did only contain one dimension, all those countless ages ago. But even they would die one day, and then, maybe, just maybe, it would no longer be pure defence against the Immaterium. Who knows, maybe one day the Immaterium itself might come under attack. 

* * *

Joe walked along the dusty road that twisted around and through the desert, they were nearing the castle now. He glanced to the side and out into the endless vista of sand from his position as the rear of the group. Idly noting the melting and already melted clocks draped over even more out of place objects lining the oceanic desert he sighed thinking over how the digiworld was getting stranger by the day. 

A squawk from up above drew his attention to the sky, where a flock of seagulls were flying backwards through the large ocean up there that stretched as far as his eyes could see. Vicariously he watched as a school of fish swam past the birds and started to eat them in a frenzied battle of scales and feathers. A feather floated down past his face, a spec of blood dropped and splashed on the dust road in front of him before he walked past, the digiworld was definitely getting stranger. His gaze shifted up from the blood rapidly spreading across the path, quickly taking in the six humans and seven digimon in front of him, all digivolved to their highest states. 

A faint whistling sounded somewhere behind him but he ignored it, kept trudging onwards, onwards towards the ever growing, ever looming castle. Monotonously he kept placing first one foot ahead of him in the dusty path, then the other foot ahead of him in the bloody and dusty path. Tedious step, after tedious step, after tedious step. Over and over for hours while the single drop of blood had spread out over the lands, tinting everything with red. Over and over for hours while the others pointedly ignored him, not even Gommamon had spoken to him. 

"Crimson Lightning!" 

Seven laser red whips of blinding and searing energy slashed out over his head. One strip of energy streaked towards each digimon. That bright red laser lance pierced their skin and penetrated the hearts. Seconds later in the silence, seven digimon dropped to the ground, dying, blood slipping, squelching, and spurting out of the wounds, adding their blood to the already blooded ground. 

The humans apart from Joe fell to the side of their partnered digimon, tears dripping down all but Tai's and Matt's faces, as all of them tried in vain to coax them back to life before realising it was hopeless. Six kneeling figures slowly raised their faces; all six now streaked with at least one tear each. Six stares locked onto the immobile and still standing Joe. Six stares that would have burrowed through his body and pierced his soul, rapidly skewering his flesh and ripping out his heart, veins and arteries so that his blood spilt to the ground like the crimson lightning had done to their partners if they could. 

Slowly, almost slow enough to be in slow motion, Tai stood up, staggering to his feet as his single tear fell off of his chin and splashed onto the bloodless corpse of Agumon below. In slow succession the others, one by one, pushed themselves off of the ground and onto their feet, finally ending as TK stumbled up, tears freely flowing out of his eyes and onto both the ground in front of him and Patamon. 

Tai stepped forward, eyes still searing into Joe as he took a step backwards, towards Myotismon, his foot making a disgusting squishing noise on the ground as it pushed blood aside. Matt followed Tai's single step, then Sora, Izzy, Mimi, and TK, each as silent as the last in their focused grief fuelled fury. Joe glanced backwards, where the grinning Myotismon stood, mocking him silently with his arms crossed across his chest, the mighty digimon lord, the bringer of death. 

He was trapped, Myotismon, the object of their hunt for the last few weeks, to his back, those who had been his friends, comrades, and brothers and sisters in arms for the last few months in front. All of those seven, behind and ahead, seemingly equally willing to kill him. He noticed another step forward by his previous friends, now much closer now than they should have been. Looking around wildly he saw they had almost formed a loose circle about him if he counted Myostismon in it to. Soon the circle would be complete and there would be no way out of it at all, not that he could outrun Tai or Matt, let alone Myotismon. 

Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of light reflected off of his glasses, he turned his head to it and his jaw dropped in surprise. An armoured knight rode towards them all on an equally armoured horse. Wide eyed he tried to digest the information his eyes were feeding him. Intricately designed armour plates covered the horse, interlocking and sliding perfectly with the horse as it galloped across the terrain. Each one, that he could see, was a slightly different shade of dark purple, giving the impression that the whole thing changed colour as his eyes went down the horse. Over the top of that was a far lighter purple cape, bearing some sort of crest he could only half see as the rider sat atop of that. 

The rider himself was also armoured in dark purple armour plates that looked similar to the horses, only smaller and made for a man instead. On top of his head rested an ornate helmet, gentle purple wings sprouting out of its ears, as though ready to give flight to both knight and horse. Further down, in one gauntleted fist, he bore a dark purple, almost black, lance. The point of which was now levelled straight at Myotismon who it was now clear was the target. 

Quickly Myotismon turned to face this new and possibly threatening target. Eyes narrowing as he quickly took in the armoured knight and armoured horse as Joe had done mere milliseconds before him. Something was odd about the horse, but he could not place what it was, and there was not enough time to keep looking while he tried to work out what it was. Not with the speed at which this armour laden beast somehow travelled. 

"Grisly Wing!" 

A stream of bats erupted forth from Myotismon's cloak, screeching as they hurtled towards the purple knight who hurtled right back at them, spurring his horse into moving even faster. So fast did they hit that they hit as a single thing. Each bat disintegrated at the same instant as the were smashed against some kind of invisible barrier around the pair. The remains making the horse look like it was smoking, burning the very ground up with its speed. 

"Crimson Lightning!" 

The red whip flew out of Myotismon's hand, his eyes widening in fright as that bounced completely harmlessly off of the horse's armoured side. Quickly he took two steps back, before the lance was thrust forwards by the knight. Time appeared to slow as the very tip of the lance tapped Myotismon's chest, a trickle of black light flickered out of the contact, before turning into a dark beam that headed towards the rider before quickly turning into a sickly purple. Time sped back up to normal and the lance went straight through him, as though Myotismon wasn't there to block its path. Quickly the purple light expanded, swallowing him up in what looked like a cheap B-movie special effect, leaving only the knight of purple behind. 

Joe looked at the gap, formed by the death of the last digimon at the scene and by the knight having ridden past, although it looked like he may now be turning around, for another attack or to talk to them who could say, the lance was now aimed high in the air though. He looked back at his friends, advancing on him once more now that the shock of seeing a knight in shining armour ride through and kill their dreaded enemy had worn off. Their steps looked to be coming down on the blood that seemed to be the ground rapidly now. Joe took one more look at the gap and sprinted for it. Arms pumping as fast as they could. Lungs breathing as deep as they could. Heart beating as fast as it could. Adrenaline pushing him beyond his normal limits when he had only just started. 

Then the world exploded. 

* * *

Tai crept up to the now peacefully sleeping form of Joe on the warming up forest ground, reaching him silently and slowly lowering his head to Joe's. As quietly as possible he sucked up a lungful of air. "WAKE UP!!!" he shouted into Joe's ear as loud as he could manage. "Some guard you are Joe." 

Joe bolted up, instantly awake and with all memories of what had happened during his guard duty forgotten. He looked at the blur of colour in front of him before searching with his hands for his glasses that were now lying next to his legs and putting them on carefully. The blob of colour quickly reshaped itself into Tai "You know someone else should have taken over, Tai." 

He pushed Tai gently out of his way as he headed over to the rest of the group to get some food. "Morning guys. Where's the food?" Joe asked, cheering up a little at the prospect of some food in his stomach. 

Sora pointed towards the now small pile of berries and fruit that they were eating without saying anything as she carried on eating her portion, slower than the guys were. Joe sat down and started scoffing down the food with the other four; only Tai was not eating, having managed to somehow eat his share already. A few seconds, and yet another new record for worlds' fastest eaters, broken only a minute or so before by Tai, they finished their meal. 

Soon after Izzy had his computer out, methodically checking that they were still heading in the right direction, not that they could really travel in the wrong direction. Mountains were hard to miss normally. Then again, this place wasn't exactly normal as they had all found out on more than one occasion before. Fourteen faces leaned in to try and see the small screen. Izzy felt the other bodies pressing up against him and whirled his face round, coming face to face with just over a thirteen others. A quick glare from him at each of them and all thirteen of them backed away a step or two, giving him room to work on his beloved laptop without risking any harm to it. 

"How much further?" Matt's question was simple and to the point, something they had all now got used to doing. Anything more complicated than this could and most probably would earn them all a long winded refresher course in the techno babble that Izzy was so fond of. 

"About fourteen point seven kilometres. Straight over that mountain." Izzy read off the numbers quickly as he pointed one hand lazily towards the mountain a short distance away at the edge of the forest, the other hand never leaving the keyboard for an instant. "However there is a message from Gennai that I want to read before we undertake the journey." 

Izzy moved his hand over the touchpad, moving the cursor to the animated icon of Gennai and tapped his finger over a button twice while turning the volume up with his other hand to let everyone hear the message. 

A two dimensional and slightly cartoonish picture of Gennai expanded and filled up the screen, waving once at the crowded round group before beginning its message. "I bring bad news. A threat far greater than Myotismon has appeared. Several hundred creatures entered digiworld sometime yesterday. As you know, they portals to the digiworld are not supposed to open." 

"Who are they?" Mimi asked slowly drawing closer to the screen with the rest of them without any of them realising they were doing it. Something that was almost certain to earn more glares from Izzy if they continued and he noticed. 

"I was getting to that. Always interrupting me as though I don't matter." 

"We're sorry Gennai. We do listen to you." Tai quickly said while staring daggers at Mimi for having to apologise for her again. 

"There you go again. Anyway, these creatures are neither digimon nor human. And as far as I can tell aren't made of matter or data." 

"But that's preposterous." Izzy blurted. 

"You have a lot to learn, Izzy. Be careful, I can only trail them by the destruction they have wrought for now. I suggest you try to confront Myotismon as he is so near, and then investigate this new threat. If I find out more I'll let you know. Meter's running low, so I'll have to go now." The image dissolved into background static then finally disappeared altogether. They thought over what Gennai said, leaving the scene in complete silence save for the whistling of the wind, and the hum of the computer. And the high pitched screams of a nearby dying digimon. 


	2. Immaterium: First Blood

**

Immaterium: First Blood

**

They all stood up rigid, only their heads moving in the deathly still silence that followed the anguished cry of pain. Slowly, ever so slowly, lest they disturb whatever had caused such a pained screech from near the edge of the forest to be uttered. Almost in unison the fourteen heads turned to face the source of the cry. Nothing, all that they could see was the trees. Forests gave good cover for them Izzy had quickly decided, but also good cover to whatever was out there that they were supposed to track down and exterminate. 

Another piercing scream echoed through the trees, seemingly homing in on them, the chosen defenders of this world, pleading for their help for the few seconds before the sound abruptly stopped. Only silence echoed through the forest, only the scream echoed through their minds. 

Tai nodded once, barely perceptible to most people, but noticed at once by the group. The stresses of having to fight to merely survive had honed all of their instincts as a team to some extent, and as time wore on Tai quickly became their impromptu leader. Matt was the only one who would challenge him, but at a time like this it seemed unlikely. 

"Let's go." Tai started walking towards the sound, followed by the others just half a step behind him. Quickly they picked up speed into a jog, then a full fledged sprint, flashes of green and brown rushing past them as they let their legs work almost on automatic, their minds all absorbed by trying to imagine what caused the scream. Or, perhaps, in trying to not imagine what had caused the scream. 

Blindly they ran onwards. Running towards the where they could still imagine the sound coming from, even though there had been nothing but silence before they started running. The only real sounds that existed now were the constant thudding of their shoes and feet against the ground, pushing them inexorably onwards towards the imaginary screech. Blood pumped hard in their ears, almost threatening to pulse out of their bodies with the adrenaline induced effort they were putting themselves through. 

Semi-hidden reserves of energy were tapped, even Mimi managing to keep up with the group, albeit with Tai running a little slower than he could if needed. Greens and browns started merging into a single and strange colour in her eyes, there was no way she could keep this speed up for much longer. Exhaustion would have already set into her were it not for the sheer concentration of adrenaline inside her bloodstream. 

Half with effort and half with fear she pushed herself onwards, stumbling once, then once more before she regained her footing on the uneven ground. Roots snaked around as though they wanted to snag her feet, trip her, and bring her crashing down to the dirty soil below. A lighter patch ahead caught her sight, a clearing. It must be a clearing. Izzy must have mentioned something about it she thought as she took the next here steps. 

They burst into a tranquil looking clearing, breath coming from most of them in ragged gasps. Quickly half of them bent over, hands on their knees as they gulped down lungfuls of sweet tasting air. Seconds later the heavy breathing stopped, their short but unusually rapid sprint quickly being recovered from. 

Tai looked around the large clearing they had found their way to. It was an ideal location for a picnic at first glance. Unsurprisingly it was surrounded by trees, but all were tall and elegant looking, holding themselves up with pride as they guarded the space in the forest. Above there was a clear blue sky that shone down on them, not a single wisp of cloud was marring it. In the centre of the place, and taking up maybe half of the entire thing, was a lake, presumably one that was normally crystal clear and that sparkled in the sunlight. The place should have been a natural vista of just what nature could produce. 

It was not. 

In the very middle of the lake was a tree stump. Smoke gently rose from its blackened husk, lazily heading towards the sky. Jagged spikes of brittle wood spearing upwards crowned its head, possibly showing where the rest of the tree had been exploded off of it. A metre or so below that was where all eyes were drawn to, the first gruesome display that this place had been defiled. 

A limp head of a Seadramon stared out at them, totally severed from its body which wasn't even nearby. Blood still trickled down the tree on which it had been mercilessly impaled, staining most of the wood a deep dark red colour. A single dribble of blood moved on down as they watched, colouring over another blackened part of the charred trunk with red. 

The water should have been as clear as crystal they thought, but it was now also tainted by whatever evil had visited this place. A light pinkish colour spread out in a circle around the stump impaled head, stretching outwards towards the shore millimetre by millimetre. A gross parody of the pretty colour it had produced. 

On the ground there appeared to lay most of the remains. Armoured bones were strewn all over, thrown around as though nothing more than toothpicks. Jagged rips and clean cuts were obvious on some of the bones to all of them, while only Joe guessed that the small pile of fine white dust might be more ground up bones. 

Their heads turned towards the trees that had failed so miserably to guard this paradise turned hell. Even they had not escaped the slaughter unharmed. Pieces of chitin were thrown into them, sap pouring out of gaping wounds where it had been hurled in with enough force to smash its way completely through a dozen or more feet of solid wood. 

A small retching sound tore most of them away from the sight for barely a second as one of their number proceeded to vomit his breakfast over the floor, involuntarily adding his own little bit to the defacement of the clearing. 

Black particles rose up from all over the area, the poor digimon's body finally having given up its futile and silent struggle to stay there. Slowly the chunks of chitin disappeared, unplugging the holes in the trees, which once more started to bleed their sap down their trunks and over the ground. The armoured bones evapourated next, their heavy weight in life floating away so easily in death. Particle by black particle the water turned from pink to clear, absorbing the looks of all who could see the amazing change in it. 

Slowly but surely the blood on the trunk also disappeared into the sky leaving only the impaled head, which stared out at the digidestined with its sunken eyes. That baleful stare locked onto them to the last, the head finally losing its battle against the inevitable and exploding in a cloud of black data which rapidly dispersed away and travelled over the horizon that they couldn't see. 

In what may have been only seconds, or may have been minutes, they watched the hellish scene turn into something resembling normality and peace. Only the oozing trees surrounding them and the burnt trunk in the centre of the lake now gave any physical indication that something had happened here. In their minds, though, they could still see the corpse, plastered around like a mad artist playing with a model to try and produce the most horrific effect his warped and twisted mind could hope to make. 

"Wh-what could do such a thing?" Tai asked in shock, still staring at the now clean area on the trunk where the head had been brutally impaled. 

"Nothing we've seen before I think." Izzy said, dropping his computer to the floor as his fingers slowly opened of their own accord, not even noticing when his most treasured item hit the rock with a loud thud that was almost deafening in the now broken silence. 

But even silence was preferable to the sight that followed. Blocking out the sun was a giant creature of enormous proportions. Covered in luminous black armour that was painted in the blood of fallen warriors it flew overhead, wings outstretched. Its axe was swung from side to side with practise blows in perfect synchronisation with the flaps of its black, leathery wings. Inch by inch it dropped down towards the clearing, its bestial half dog half human face grinning at them like a madman in an asylum. There was no doubt in any of their minds; this was the creature that had turned this paradise into a hell, and by the looks of the creature, quite possibly, its heaven. 

TK took a quick step backward. Another quick step followed by his other foot as his body turned first through forty five degrees, then through a full one hundred and eighty with a final half jump half step. Now facing the way he had come in TK didn't look back towards the once idyllic clearing and simply bolted, fear now completely controlling all of his actions. 

Mimi looked up at the hellish beast which might very well have literally stepped straight out of Hell. Its fanged maw opened wide, a great and guttural growl erupted from it, shaking the very foundations of the world it seemed. As the volume rose and rose that gaping mouth seemed to draw closer and closer, ready to swallow her up whole, consume her in a single, famished, bite. A small noise, somewhere between a scream and a squeak escaped her lips as her eyes met the dimly glowing red eyes of the descending monster. Finally her body and mind could take no more, giving up as she collapsed to the ground with a quiet thud, unconscious. 

The other five members of the digidestined and all of the digimon remained still, frozen as their eyes were locked onto the slowly approaching nightmare. Its midnight black wings stopped beating, folding up behind the creature, the deadly looking tusk like bones that stuck out of the top of them pointed directly at the group as it landed on the ground, bending its knees slightly as its huge bulk caused the place to shake for a few moments. 

"We're going to die…." Joe whispered without realising it. The creature changed the direction of its gaze, raising its head up to the cloudless sky and letting out a deafening and earth-rending roar, as though to challenge everything that lived. A fear greater than any of them realised could existed rapidly fell over them and took hold. As one they turned towards where TK had fled mere seconds beforehand. As one they also fled, sprinting with all their might, running for their lives, fear alone fuelling their legs and arms as they pumped. 

Silent screams and prayers escaped their lips, the vain hope that any deity out there would listen and hep them was entertained by most of them in the short time before their thoughts devolved into nothing but fleeing from what they had just seen. 

Trees stopped becoming distinct. No longer were there many trees inside the forest. There was now just a single blob of green, resting on a single blob of brown. Brownish arrows and spikes shot from the trees, scratching and clawing at their faces and arms and legs and bodies as they ran. Blood spilled from them all, over the attacking branches and onto the ground, totally unnoticed by them. But blood that was very much noticed by a monster drawn to even this small scant scent of blood. 

The roar bellowed out behind them. Louder than before. Louder, barely, even than the blood in their ears. Accompanying the growl was a ripping and tearing, a noise that they deep down feared being created through the trees by the sheer brute strength of the oncoming behemoth of a thing. Reserves of energy were torn into by their bodies, their minds freeing every last erg of energy lest they meet with their untimely demise at the hands, whip, or axe of the blood red and black giant behind them. 

The ripping, the tearing, the roaring grew louder. The beast was closing on them, and closing fast. It was merely a matter of time until it caught up with them. Someone stumbled a single step, but managed to plant their foot down safely on the next step. Hands and feet had gone completely numb, although none of them noticed in their blind and outright panic. Arms and legs, too, were beginning to numb, all the oxygen they could get being burnt up as quickly as it came in. 

A giant explosion rocked out behind them, trees hurled themselves through the sky, and the shockwave on the ground smashed the thirteen runners twenty or more metres ahead and then to the floor. 

They lay there. Panting. 

There was not the breath for them to get up yet. 

Blood and heartbeats pounded against their ears as blackness tinged the edges of their vision. Silence was the only thing behind them they slowly realised. Blessed silence. It was a silence that meant that they could no longer be being chased. Breaths still came in ragged gasps as they regained enough air to sit up. 

Sora climbed up slowly and tentatively from the floor. Easing her body towards it she sat against the nearest tree, resting her aching body against it. She looked around, regretting it instantly as her head spun and ears refused to hear anything but her own heartbeat. Quickly and instinctively she buried her head between her knees as she vomited from the strain of the run, the sickly brown and yellow pool of half digested food and bile spreading out over the ground as she moved away from it. 

As the minutes passed the others all slowly propped themselves against a tree, returning tenuously, bit by bit, to normal as their breaths became more and more normal, instead of the ragged gasps of air they had been needing. 

No one remembered Mimi, lying unconscious on the ground. 

All their heads shot around as they heard a loud sound from where they had just fled from. Not the creature, of that though could be certain. This was a scream instead a high-pitched scream. A female scream. A scream that abruptly fell silent in mid-scream. 

"Mimi!" Matt shouted as he leapt up. Blood rushed around inside his ears as he heard while his head began to feel light, almost as if it was floating off of his shoulders which were beginning to feel more like lead. Almost instantly he fell, face first into the ground, collapsing as his knees buckled out from underneath him. With his head down in the dirt he slipped rapidly into unconsciousness, his body no longer able to, or wanting to, cope with both the physical and mental strains of the last few minutes, a time that seemed like hours to them all. 

Gabumon collapsed with a groan a few seconds later, his energy drained along with Matt's. Joe was up as soon as he could, carefully walking over to them lest he faint like they had. Quickly he made a rough check on them, making sure that it was only exhaustion, and maybe shock, that had made them both pass out. 

After he was done they pulled Matt and Gabumon underneath some thicker cover, before acknowledging the unspoken decision to get rest themselves. No one even thought about them having a watch while the others slept, something Joe would probably have been glad about had he thought about it. It took mere seconds for them to start surrendering to the same blissful slumber that Matt and Gabumon had already found. Less than two minutes later, all thirteen of them were deeply asleep. 

* * *

Darkness. 

That was all TK saw when he woke up. He waited a while, trying to let his eyes adjust to the gloom. Nothing happened as he waiting, impatiently trying to peer into the encompassing darkness. Hesitantly he stood up, before realising that he couldn't even see the ground. Every source of light had been destroyed it seemed, darkness had won the eternal fight. 

One by one the figures of the other digidestined appeared around him, asleep peacefully on the invisible floor, the bright colours of their forms making a stark contrast against the pitch black universe. He looked at them. All were there, all except for Mimi. He had heard her scream after they had been thrown to the ground and stopped running. He had heard the scream end abruptly. He was certain something bad had happened to her. Only one thing stopped him from believing she was dead; his seemingly endless supply of hope deep within, the quality for which he had been chosen to be the bearer of the crest of Hope. 

_Will I ever see Mimi again? TK wondered. Why did this have to happen to us? WHY?_ He shouted inside his head, throwing his head towards the starless and empty blackness that the night sky should have occupied. 

_Because you are a coward… a voice offered in his head._

Unbeknownst to him, the sleeping figure of Tai was enveloped in the darkness. Quickly it sunk beneath the pure black ground, swallowed up by the darkness around him as his courage was swallowed up by the darkness within. 

"Wh-who are you?" TK said looking futilely around the echoing void, instantly fully awake, the now familiar feeling of fear returning to him like a punch to the face. 

_That is irrelevant. I answered your question though. You ran from the clearing. The others had to choose between yourself and Mimi…._

"I don't understand, how do you…" 

_Do not interrupt…. Matt, of course, chose to run after his brother…. You see, you were to blame for this…. Had you cared for her, or any of your companions, you would not have fled like the coward you are…. You would not have fled to leave them to face that thing alone…._

The sleeping form of Sora slowly sunk into and through the ground while darkness covered over her like a thin but rapidly thickening blanket. Seconds later she disappeared fully, consumed in the same manner as Tai had been before her. 

"No…. Surely not…? I couldn't be. Could I?" TK asked in whispers to the still air. 

_You should know that you were the one who caused her death…. The other members of your group know this…. Only you are too blind to know the truth…._

Like the two before him Izzy disappeared, eaten up quickly by the pitch black ground, once more without TK even noticing that one of his friends had gone missing. 

_They will never trust you again… TK…. You let them down…. You failed them…. They are not fools enough to place trust in a failure like you once more…._

"No…. Please…. I-I didn't kill her…." 

Joe's form disappeared in what was almost a flash of even more darkness. His still form rushing beneath the ground instantly, this time attracting TK's attention. Slowly he looked around, seeing only Matt's slumbering body on the ground before him now as his mind quickly tried to fathom what had happened to the others. 

_You did not even notice your comrades disappearing…. You did not even notice your friends being consumed by the darkness…. There is no place in you for friendship…._

TK locked his eyes onto Matt's face. "No…. Leave him alone… please…." 

_I do nothing to these slumbering forms…. Their disappearances are all down to you…. As Mimi's death was down to you…. As this one is disappearing now…._

TK looked on in horror as the darkness cut into Matt, eating him up quickly, maggots of darkness consuming his clothes and flesh in an orgy of feasting, leaving only his bones behind mere seconds later. Even those bones were soon gone, eaten by the invisible black maggots, leaving him alone in this dark universe, just him and the tormenting voice and the darkness. 

_And when all others are destroyed, Hope too, is destroyed…._

The darkness intensified somehow. TK felt something leave him from inside. Courage left him, love left him, all the good qualities that the digidestined were supposed to represent left him. And finally, hope also left him. There was no escape anymore. He had killed Mimi. Now this darkness was coming to kill him. 

One last small spurt of hope surged up within him and he looked around, looking for the voice in his head that had so quickly beaten him down into near nothingness. "I didn't kill her, did I…? Please tell me I didn't kill her…." 

There was no answer. Only the deathly silence of the darkness greeted his ears this time. 

"Answer me!" TK shouted in rage. "Answer me, damn you!" 

A shadowy figure stepped towards him; its armoured bulk towered over him, its deep purple glinting, impossibly, off of something in the all encompassing darkness. "I am already damned I think, little boy bearer of Hope. And now it is my turn to damn you…." 

TK looked at it, eyes opening wide with fear as a sword extended from its hand with supernatural speed. A scream escaped his lips as the sword hurtled towards him, a dull explosion of sound echoing in his ears as it did so. 

* * *

A scream rang out throughout the forest, waking the digidestined from their exhaustion induced slumber in seconds. A few seconds of panic passed when they saw TK, now sobbing into his hands instead screaming like a banshee. 

They all went over to TK, ready to comfort the youngest member of the group from whatever nightmare he had had. Probably something to do with Mimi being left behind by them, none of them had had particularly pleasant dreams that night. 

Matt knelt down next to TK as the others stood or crouched a little further away from him, hanging back to let the brothers comfort each other. "It's ok TK, it was just a dream. Just a bad dream. Everyone gets them once in a while. We're all tired. Why don't you go back to sleep?" 

"It wasn't a dream! Mimi isn't here, is she? I got her killed!" TK screamed once more, his voice quivering and tears streaming down his eyes. "I killed her!" 


	3. Immaterium: Containment

**

Immaterium: Containment

**

Mr Patterson took one more look at the Immaterium Containment Field. A machine with only one purpose; to seal dimensions off from one another. More specifically sealing the Immaterium off from all other dimensions. Now and then it had failed due to the inconceivably large power supply it required. Sometimes supernovas just couldn't be found in time, and yet another dimension would fall under attack from the Chaos Gods and their daemons who inhabited the Immaterium. Even rarer were the times when the field failed due to hardware failures, every single component inside it had a duplicate, and the entire system was self-repairing. The rarest reason for a ICF failure was what was happening now, user error. 

Even that didn't truly cover the magnitude of his stupidity. He wasn't even supposed to be touching it, just the coffee machine that was, for some completely unknown reason, close enough to the ICF that some of their cables crossed over each other. To compound this design flaw, all cables in the entire complex were the same matt black, a situation which was soon to be remedied by those repair crews who had nothing to repair. 

Small things, like the old metaphor of locking the door after the missile was stolen, would have to wait for now. Right now every single person who worked in the Department of Immaterial Containment, better known to the complex as the DIC, as well as what must be at least half the repair crews in the entire place, were on alert. Modifying a machine that was powered by multiple supernovas was, at the very least, risky. 

Taking one last look at the relatively small part of the ICF in the room below Mr Patterson sighed. The best case scenario was that the field was completely shut down for thirty seconds and that the Chaos Powers wouldn't notice. Given that the field had been inactive barely twenty hours beforehand the odds of that scenario weren't too good. The worst case scenario was that the complex would be attacked, overrun, and destroyed by the forces of Chaos. Thankfully this was even less likely, the odds of finding them out of all the virtually infinite number of dimensions were as low as they seemed. Even if they did, most of the DIC agents carried a variety of weapons that were very lethal to daemons. 

Slowly his slightly shaking hand unconsciously slipped into a hidden pocket in his uniform, his equally quivering fingers tightened around a reassuring solid sphere, automatically avoiding both the priming pin and keypad on it. A few seconds later his fingers, now more steady, withdrew from his pocket, letting go of the highly illegal weapon in there that would get him the harshest possible punishment if it was ever found out. _At least I have you if those scum ever break into here…._

Now, it would seem, another dimension was under attack because of his stupidity and carelessness. It would not be the first time that an agent had made such a mistake he had consoled himself, although a persistent and annoying little voice had constantly reminded him that none had ever made that kind of mistake through such stupidity before. How many souls were in that dimension, as minor as it was, he wondered. Later he would have to check up on the rough figures for that and too many other uncomfortable questions for the report which he needed to file soon. 

He sat down at his chair with another heavy sigh, his eyes wandering over the room below him through the transparent tri-phased diamond window. Standing at various points were twenty members of the five man kill teams, their genetically reprocessed bodies hefting weapons that he wouldn't be able to lift unaided. Sitting behind various consoles in the room were people like programmers and scientists involved with the ICF. Waiting just inside the sealed doorways, almost out of view from his seated position behind the desk, were teams of repair crews, their tools resting on the ground that they crouched on. Finally, milling around all of those were the resident maintenance and whatever techies that weren't sitting at consoles, all of them furiously rushing around, gathering readings from different consoles, passing on messages to other people, or attending to the ICF itself. 

Then above all of those, safe behind the nigh-on indestructible window was himself; Commander Patterson of the DIC. The one who effectively held all of their lives in his hands. The one who had caused this whole current disaster to take place because he had wanted his morning cup of coffee. He reached out with one hand and flicked a switch, activating the microphones around the so called office he was in. 

"This is Commander Patterson. All units prepare for the deactivation and reactivation of the ICF. I repeat, prepare for the deactivation and reactivation of the ICF in five… four… three… two… one…." 

Quickly his other hand reached out and flipped open a small plastic safety case around a red button, his thumb pressing down on the button that was inside the slight recess in his console in time with his countdown. A few seconds passed with nothing happening. Then it started. 

The seemingly omnipresent background hum of the ICF faded away, its power now being diverted into a series of gigantic capacitor like devices. The silence, so new to so many suddenly stood out, all of them used to automatically blocking out the hum that they had heard for years or decades at a time. Another half a second passed and the eerie deadness burst into life with a warning klaxon and the lighting turning red, the automated internal security system picking up the power loss right on cue. 

"Mr Sharpe, feed in the new programming instructions." 

He looked down at the console that he new that Mr Sharpe, their head programmer, was sitting behind. The man looked slightly fat and was balding on top of his head, a strange sight in here where the genetic reprocessing could fix virtually any physical condition, of which weight gaining and hair loss where definitely included. The man stopped typing instructions in after a few seconds and turned to face the window. 

"The new program modifications are being fed in now sir. My workstation thinks it will take about one and a half to two minutes." 

Mr Patterson looked across at the machine, his surprise hidden perfectly, hardly unexpected given the length of time he had been working in the DIC. _So long…? I was sure that the program would take only a quarter or a third of that time. This is too long…. Something is almost certain to notice. Shutting the power to the field for thirty seconds would have been bad enough for us, but shutting the power down for three or even four times that length of time… let us hope and pray…._

Time crawled to a near halt. Anxiety and fear ate at every single one of them as the second hands on their watches millimetred around their faces in slow motion, as the clock on the wall ground to a stop, as its second hand started to move backwards. 

Mr Patterson leaned forward in his seat, a clock moving backwards moments after they had deactivated the one thing keeping the forces of Chaos that wanted them dead so very much could not be a coincidence. "All kill teams get ready! Now!" 

A variety of clicks and hums were his only reply, the speakers inside the room below him pumping the sounds through the speakers in his office. His hand reached inside his hidden pocket, fingers locking around the forbidden weapon he had concealed there. His soul itching to use it against the foul spawn of the Immaterium. His mind telling him he couldn't punch through the window with anything but the one shot weapon he was now holding. 

A crackling sound focused all eyes on a point five or six metres in front of Mr Patterson's office. Blue and black lines of energy, blue and black lines of Chaos energy pulsed outward. Each cackling pulse of sound, light, and energy enlarging the rift. The lines multiplying exponentially with each pulse as they started to form a complete sphere, ten to fifteen metres off of the ground. The kill team members swivelled onto it, weapons raised up and aimed at it while the rest of the occupants of the room fled to the far wall. 

"Fire!" 

A full two kill teams opened up the weaponry on the rift. Five people to each team. Two almost comically oversized weapons to each person. Hyper charged psionic resonators whined as a small electrical capacitor discharged into each one, forcing them to loose off a single shot per jolt. Anti-matter bullets sparkled in the air as their protective casings rapidly degraded before exploding with incredible violence as they reached the now stalling sphere that was their target. 

The other two kill teams reached the positions, directly in between the ICF and the rift. At an unspoken signal each member of these teams raised their own weapons, levelling them at the rift as well. Another unspoken signal passed between them and they started firing. Psychic, antimatter, and more conventional fire mixed together as they all shredded and exploded their way towards the rift. It's keen wailing note of pain echoing and screaming throughout the room. 

Quickly, under the immense firepower, the rift shrunk and closed in on itself, imploding with one final ripping sound before it was silenced, only to be replaced with the screams of a technician holding both hands over his head and sprinting at one of the kill teams. A quick stream of thoughts passed through the kill teams and a single member of the third team turned to face the corrupted being, the slight hum of the electricity charging up in his gun drowned out totally by the screaming madman. 

Three independent beams of electricity arced out of the weapon, crackling harmlessly around in the air half a metre or so in front of the quad barrels. A louder hum finally sounded out, equal in volume to the maniacal screams of death and revenge. A green something, whatever it was and however it worked known only to the weapons department, burst out of the fourth barrel, in the centre of the other three. The three strands of electricity latched onto the green beam, wrapping themselves around it in a triple helix and hurtling out along with the beam itself, smashing into the oncoming attacker's midriff in less than the blink of an eye. 

A quick gasp escaped the man's lips as his clothing burst into flames covered in a faint green hue, ignited into an immolating conflagration of flames by the sheer power of the weapon. Skin bubbled up and down his body, making faint popping sounds as little globules of skin and fat exploded away from him to burn up through the flames and leave a trail of green smoke leading to the ground. The gasp turned into a tortured sound a millisecond after it started as his eyes began to swell, dark red veins showing in them as they rose to the surface. Dark red sploshes of blood showering the floor as the veins inside his eyes burst one after another, followed rapidly by the eyes themselves, leaving just a bundle of nerve fibre hanging slightly out the sockets. 

His left foot came forward the quarter step it had left to reach the ground; green smoke spiralling up dizzily from his feet as they began to melt, began to fuse with the floor. Muscles and tendons were exposed less than half a second after the beam impacted with him as the flesh boiled itself away, his own fat providing the fuel for the green inferno around him. Those very same muscles and tendons snapped almost instantly under the pressure as the flash fire robbed them of all their needed moisture, before they too were consumed by the flames. 

Only the skeleton remained, scorched and charred as black as midnight. A mere six tenths of a second after the impact the fire had disappeared, burning itself out as rapidly as it had started itself. A slight creak went unheard as the skeleton, its foot bones damaged beyond stability, fell over. Bone collided with metal floor. Dust exploded upwards from the impact as the skeleton disintegrated under the final blow of the floor upon its now far too brittle self. 

Silence fell over the room as the dust started to settle. Only the kill team were communicating, and that was in their totally silent telepathic messages that only other kill team members in that room could pick up. 

Mr Patterson looked down at the dust cloud that used to be one of the technicians and flicked the intercom back on again, quickly coming up with what he hoped would be some more or less inspirational words which would help them get over the death of their colleague. "The power of Chaos corrupts and twists the weak. That man was weak. Do not repeat his mistake if you do not want to end up like him." 

He flicked the intercom off and groaned. He was rarely good at inspirational speaking or raising morale. Usually he could leave that to others, but every now and then he had no choice but to attempt it. Attempt almost always being the key word when he was involved. 

The machine screeched, quiet at first but quickly escalating into an almost deafening sound that easily would have drowned out the wailing klaxon had it still have been sounding. It would seem that the program modifications had been completed and that power was automatically being re-routed into the ICF. Those nearest the machine clamped their hands over their ears, almost in imitation of the late technician, as they quickly fled back to their consoles or pre-assigned positions. Only repair crews who quickly put a form of ear plugs in their ears that blocked out or reduced dangerous sounds while still allowing normal and quiet sounds through moved to the machine as they were supposed to. 

The protests of the machine increased to the annoyance of most in the room, almost all of who still covered their ears with their hands with only the exceptions of those lucky few who had the ear plugs and those unlucky few who needed to use their hands to type instructions into their consoles. Warning lights glared on Mr Patterson's console, each demanding his attention as the power surge rushed through the ICF. Quickly prioritising the warnings his hands leapt to the keyboard at the front of his desk, the lessons he learnt during his days of when he was a system's maintainer coming back to him instantly thanks to the reprocessing he'd received shortly after being recruited. There was too much for him to do on his own, one hand left the keyboard and flicked the intercom on so he could give out instructions. 

"Someone cut the power inflow by fifteen percent… we need to power up slower than the automatic rate now." 

The screeching lessened, although still remaining loud in his ears it was steadily dropping. It would just be a matter of seconds now before he could have them bring the ICF up to full power again, assuming he could keep up with any fluctuations and anomalies that might appear. 

"Increase power back to normal inflow… now." 

A few seconds passed while his instruction was carried out and several of the warning lights of his console went from red to blue, from a high alert to a low alert. He typed in a few more commands to set up for the re-establishment of the field itself. His finger hovered over the final button for barely a second before he pushed it down. The tiny electrical signal activating the ICF fully. The final red light, one that had been on from the instant he had cut the power to the machine, blinked off completely. It was over. The ICF beamed out from the complex, hurtling towards and enveloping the Immaterium and all the other dimensions it was supposed to at what Mr Patterson still thought of as an impossible speed. In mere seconds the field would be fully established again and the universe safe against Chaos once more. 

A red light flashed on the panel and he looked down at it in horror. The big glaring red light stared at him with its baleful bulb, telling him one of the worst possible pieces of news, Chaos had seeped into yet another dimension. Hands quickly flew across the keyboard and part of the scanning array built into the complex began to re-align itself, aiming for the dimension that had just been invaded to perform a more thorough scan. 

Almost instantly a green light went on above his head and above the ICF in the room below him. Mr Patterson slumped into a seat. The ICF was back up and running at full power, but it had been too slow. He'd condemned yet another dimension to an invasion by Chaos. All around him the speakers blared out the cheers that went up in the room below, the Immaterium had been contained yet again. The DIC, and all its employees were happy, it was time to celebrate. At least that seemed to be the view of most of them, all Mr Patterson saw was death and destruction. The death of a co-worker and the destruction of at least one more dimension. 

* * *

Everyone stayed silent. No one knew how to respond to TK. They simply watched as a tear trickled from the cornet of his eye, down his already tear slick cheek, down his jaw, and eventually drip off of his chin. Eventually it was Joe who broke the silence, attempting to console the youngest member of their team. "It wasn't your fault TK. We all had to run from that… thing. It would have k…" Joe broke off, his words needed to be very well thought out, "been stupid for us to all stay there." 

TK looked up at him, another tear was rolling down his left cheek now. He looked as though he was going to say something, his lip quivering hard and moisture welling up in his eyes more. He lowered his head again before launching himself at Joe. Crashing his body into Joe, crying all the while and thinking of nothing but Mimi's final, heart-rending scream. A scream that was playing over and over in his mind constantly without pause for his sanity. 

Joe moved backwards and to the side slowly and gently lowered him down to the ground. They kept staring at the sobbing and almost broken form of TK, all of them wanting to speak. All of them too afraid to speak. Exhaustion once more caught up with TK and he slowly cried himself into a fitful sleep, tears and sobs still escaping him even in that normally peaceful state. 

They all lay back down on their impromptu bed of fallen leaves, trying to get to sleep once more despite the difficulty of doing so in the midst of guilt and grief. Sora and Izzy just stared straight ahead, their eyes looking unblinkingly into the night stars, both of their minds deep in thought, or grief. Tai and Joe were lying, eyes closed, their bodies turning sporadically as they tried to make themselves comfortable while their minds were far too active to sleep easily Matt just sat sobbing long into the night, emulating what his now sleeping brother had been doing. 

_I have to kill that thing. Matt thought, still sobbing into his hands. It murdered Mimi. It's evil. We have to destroy it. Yes, we can do it if we fight together. The digimon can digivolve to the ultimate level. We can destroy this thing. We just have to work together._ Matt cheered up at that thought in a sudden and extreme mood swing, the sobs turning into laughs for a few moments until he finally fell silently into a nightmarish slumber. 

* * *

Fire. 

Everything around him was on fire. Yet, strangely, it didn't burn him. It didn't even feel hot. He looked around and saw what might well be hell on earth, or even Hell itself. As far as his eyes could see the ground was made almost entirely of rough rocks intermingled with the occasional tumbling boulder that brought the sounds of thunder with them as they fell. Those places not covered in the rock were holes, usually vast holes, all of them spewing enormous gouts of fire into the sky, maybe thousands of feet into the sky. Somewhere in the distance he saw what looked at first glance to be a muddy and slow moving river. On second glance he realised it was composed entirely of rocks rolling on a bed of flames that would burst up out of the gaps in-between rolling rocks. 

Matt could think of only one word; Hell. Maybe that monster had killed him in his sleep and he was being given the ultimate punishment for some cruel deed he had performed at some point in his short life. A great curtain of fire descended from the heavens and plunged through the ground and on into the depths causing Matt to gasp in surprise. A strange metallic taste filled his mouth and confused him for a while before his mind finally hit on what the taste was. The sky, it was made of blood! 

_It's a dream. Yeah that's it. It has to be a dream._

Then came the scream. Mimi's scream. Again and again. Sounding just as it did when they had all fled from the clearing. Matt ran through the thick liquid as fast as he could. Blood congealed and oozed around him, sticking to him and slowing his movements as it worked into his every joint, seeping beneath his clothes and sticking them to his skin with its slickness. Pouring into his boots, making them squelch with every slowed down step of his sprint. 

Inch by agonising inch the ground stumbled away beneath his feet as he tried to sprint in the thickening watery blood that was the sky of this nightmare. A geyser of molten flame burst up to his side, the heat wave from it rippling his vision despite his skin not feeling any of the heat. Pillars of fire after pillars of fire erupted up around him, the very world itself seeming to take offence at his presence or, perhaps, his direction. The ground shook, a great low rumble that threatened to tumble him into the fiery depths of the ground. He staggered to a stop as the land made one final assault, one final attempt to stop him. Shielding his eyes from the blinding nova light he stared ahead, the mushroom shaped plume of molten lava rocketed into the sky as he turned his back to it, this show of voraciousness finally making him feel the heat of the hellworld. 

Hours or seconds passed as the great volcano created itself, all the while spewing its almost nuclear blast of fire into the stratosphere. Time or reality had little meaning here Matt decided as he took yet another step back. Slowly the volcano burned itself out, the great gouts of fire erupting from it coughed and spluttered to a stop. The ground itself fell silent as if in awe of the gigantic mountain that had sprung up in however little or much time had passed. 

Matt faced back towards where the geyser had been, his head slowly moving upwards as his jaw opened in shock. He shook his head and took a step forward, followed by another lumbering step as he pushed himself through the sickly sticky blood with squelching sounds coming from his feet. A faint popping sounded in his ears and the thickness eased off, its gripping tendrils of red standing by idly, their final assault having failed to quell his determination. 

Beguiling the slow speed he was sure he was trudging along at a small and beautiful section appeared on the horizon and sped towards him. A little section of Heaven in Hell was the best way he could describe it given what he was in. Instead of rocks there was soft looking green grass interspersed not with gouts of flames like the terrain he was standing on but with a variety of multicoloured flowers instead. The sun shone down into the beautiful blue sky, an invisible bubble of purity protecting a single inhabitant 

Standing inside the rough sphere and completely immobile, as if frozen completely in time, was Mimi. He slowed down, there was no way that he could go inside and ruin her paradise, not stained from head to toe by blood as he was. He stopped mere metres from the edge of the bubble. A section of beauty untainted in a world of blood. A shadow fell across the idyllic view, but there were no clouds in sight. Matt looked around in a panic and saw it… the creature. 

Quickly it flew down towards him, its dark black leathery wings beating languidly to slow its descent enough to stop itself crashing into the ground. Matt could do nothing but watch the behemoth almost float towards the rocks beneath their feet, frozen by panic. He noticed Mimi, unperturbed by the hulking figure of evil that was descending upon them, although still frozen completely immobile in her other worldly bubble of tranquillity. He calmed down as he looked at her, not truly noticing that she was frozen solid and regained control of his limbs. 

_It's no worse than Devimon. We defeated him. It's no worse than Devimon. We defeated him._ Matt kept chanting the mantra over and over inside his head to keep his fear repressed. Between that and the calm look on Mimi's face it worked, slowly the fear started to drain away, despite the monstrosity that was about to land near to him. 

The creature landed softly on the ground. Matt got his first good look at it. Standing at least twelve foot tall it towered over him, even at the distance it landed. It was covered from neck to foot in shining black armour daubed in various designs and scenes of slaughter in blood. A few faces leered out of the armour, their expressions twisted into grimaces of tortured pain for scant seconds before being absorbed back into it and being replaced by different faces displaying different expressions of pain. 

No. Not faces… skulls. Skulls that somehow conveyed a myriad of different deaths, each one essentially the same but subtly different from the last. Around the neck of the creature it bore an ornate brass collar bedecked in gold and adorned with symbols that stung the eye when looked at. Finally he raised his eyes to look at the very face of the creature itself. A dull red in colour and sporting massive fangs dripping with blood, the half dog and half human face turned towards him as he stared at it. Matt almost managed to miss the pure black eyes burning like coal in their sockets until they dissected his soul in a single glance. 

"Oh, but I am worse than Devimon. Far, far worse." It spoke, a deafening roar that threatened to knock Matt to the ground with its sheer volume even though the beast looked as though it wasn't trying to shout. His fear peaked up again, even worse than when the creature first appeared, but this time Matt somehow held his ground. Sweat was visible on him, and the creature could smell it as well, and probably taste it from the way it licked its lips hungrily. 

It gestured slowly with its giant whip to the frozen Mimi inside the protected bubble. "So beautiful you see her as. Yet this is not how it is." It raised its axe towards the sky and bolts of red lightning erupted from it along with the accompanying rolling thunder, temporarily overshadowing the glow the fire of the place produced. 

Matt stared in anguish as the soft grass and lovely flowers turned to rocks underneath the now confused looking and moving Mimi, followed slowly by the air congealing into blobs and taking on a reddish hue, turning to blood. Finally fire starting spewing up from the ground washing around Mimi, although not burning her. Seconds later Mimi collapsed to the rocks lining the ground in agony, unable to breath and now beginning to smoulder. 

Matt covered his ears; the screams of pain were too much for him to bear easily. He tried to look away but found himself unable to. He had to stare. Stare at the most horrid sight he had seen in his life. Mimi's twitching form slowly stopped moving, the screams no longer coming from her body, but from the blood flowing around them both. Her skin bubbled and burst all over her wherever he could see, quickly turning her into a deformed mix of bubbling skin and glued on clothes that distorted her form almost beyond all recognition. One last spurt of merciful flame erupted up around her, forcing Matt backwards with one arm covering his face as even the wailing blood fell into deathly silence. 


	4. Immaterium: Bloodscape

**

Immaterium: Bloodscape

**

Matt collapsed to his knees, the sharp rocks beneath slicing through his clothes and scoring vicious and deep looking wounds down into his knee caps. Wounds that would have bled freely were it not for the over abundance of blood around him already. Two tear wet hands covered his eyes, bloodshot almost enough to match the redness of the infernos that inhabited this place. One of those hands fell to the floor as Matt leaned his weight on it, a small rock cutting itself a shallow path through the skin unnoticed. Slowly and almost idly he picked the piece of gravel out of his blooded hand, a small and detached part of his mind noting that he should be feeling pain from the wound. 

Tears streaked down his face, mingling with the blood that was air to form little globules of lighter patches of blood in front of his eyes. Through the haze of tears and blood he saw the all consuming blaze directly in front of him flicker as its fuel, or maybe its will, was exhausting itself. Patches of blood shone through as gaps appeared here and there, quickly being covered up by the roaring torrent of flame, but even more showing up just as quickly. 

The blaze gave one final burst of energy, forcing Matt to cover his face with his arms and turn his back on the conflagration once more. Unseen to his weeping eyes a deep red colour overtook the column, the ground turning black as it charred and fused together. In less than a blink of an eye and a whimper the flames raced upwards, being replaced with nothing as no more fire issued itself from the base of the pillar. 

Matt turned his body and head back around to face the now shallow crater where the little Eden, and Mimi, had been. Rocks had melted, has flowed, had fused together. The ground had become a single sheet of shining black as smooth as glass and almost as reflective as a mirror. His face stared back at him, distorted in the concaved surface into a grinning and leering monstrosity of hatred and fury. In the centre lay a very blackened and burnt skeleton, far too small for how tall Mimi had been in life, but shrunken to almost half of her size in the intense fires of death. Cracks and fractures splintered along the whole surface of the charred remains, while the skull managed to somehow retain the final moments of burning agony in its heart wrenching expression. 

A single harsh sound slowly intruded its way into Matt's shell shocked and numbed consciousness, a deep and guttural laugh that grated against his nerves like glasspaper. Another followed, and then another. Quickly it dawned through the fogged state of grief what the sound was, and where it was coming from. Equally quickly he turned his head around, aiming it at the towering monster, his glare trying to burn through its head like the fire had burned through Mimi's body. His lips opened slowly, the last of his tears going inside his mouth as his eyes dried and the grief started to disappear to be replaced with a strange nothingness that bit by bit washed over him as he opened his mouth again. 

"No…." 

"It's not true…." 

"You didn't kill her…." 

"Did you?" 

The creature laughed again, its maw opening wider as it leaned backwards and laughed harder in response to Matt's timid and slow words coupled with his brave and accusing glare. The image of the giant in full blown laughter was even worse than of it normally Matt decided instantly as rows of sharp and blood stained fangs were fully revealed and pointed in his direction. Blobs of spittle and saliva slowly rolled down them, randomly dropping off or throwing out a drip of blood encrusted spit into the ground. Lazily the coal black eyes flickered towards him, regarding the miniscule looking human below them. The bellowing laughter slowed and then finally crawled to a stop as the hideous bestial face also turned towards him. 

"Why would I lie to you? You abandoned her, fled in your weak fear and I added another skull to the throne of the Blood God." 

The insult or taunt, whatever the words were meant to be failed. The emptiness inside Matt disappeared as it was crushed under a torrent of anger. An almost blind red rage descended upon him, only the fact that the world was already tinted red stopped his vision from literally clouding with it because of his anger. 

"No! I didn't abandon her! I'll avenge her death, I'll kill you, you murderer!" Matt screamed in defiance as he leapt to his feet. The creature stared at him incredulously and took a single half step back in surprise at the venom in the boy's voice, the height difference between them shrinking marginally each second as they continued to watch each other, one in surprise and one in anger. 

"You killed her. Now I'll kill you!" A deep purple glowing sword appeared in Matt's hands, a broadsword perfectly balanced and sized for him. Feeling the weight in his hands, his eyes started to move down, widening slightly in surprise when he saw the sword there which had now changed into an equally perfectly balanced katana, now shining from inside itself with a dark blue colour. A slight smirk touched his face for a second as he suddenly felt how to use the weapon as though he had trained with it for years. He hefted the blade in one hand and twirled it about, instinctively testing the balance before realising what he was doing. 

The monster continued to stare at the boy, not appearing to react at all to the shining sword that he was now wielding with what looked like an expert's ease. A single arc of blue light hung in the air for a second or two as the sword slashed out, a single brief screech of metal on metal shrieked out as sword struck armour. A dull red glow emanated from the gouge in the armour plating covering the creature's arm. It looked down at its arm, then at Matt with a lethal stare, its attention now firmly on the insolent boy. 

"Foolish human. You can not kill a Greater Daemon!" Its wings spread out to their full span, a gust of hot air blew around them as they beat against the sky, slowly raising the armoured figure above the ground a few feet before it rocketed upward at least fifty times that height. "You can not even reach me now, little human. How do you hope to kill me, fool?" 

Matt stared upwards at it, eyes filled with hatred. Fire erupted out of the ground in small sporadic gouts, as if responding to his anger and reflecting the fire that shone deep within in his eyes. The creature laughed again, louder than before, its great fanged maw showering the ground in saliva that sizzled on contact with the volcanic ground. "I'll kill all your friends as I did that pathetic girl. Only then will I let you die!" 

It tilted its body and drew its axe arm back slightly, the new instincts in Matt telling him that it was going to swoop down at him, intending to obliterate him in a single swing of the giant axe. Matt kept staring, the fire still reflecting in his eyes as he saw the wings still and fold in against the monster's back. What must have been thousands of kilos of weight barrelled down towards him as the axe drew back fully. 

Matt threw himself to the ground and rolled as the axe careened through the space he had just been standing in. He jumped up, facing the creature's relatively unguarded back and thrust the sword at it as hard as he could. Blue sparks showered away as metal screeched against metal before the sword glanced off of the black armour, skulls leering at him from within it as it did. 

It turned around, having felt and heard the sword glancing off the back of its armour. A slash of pain echoed through its body. Another rapid attack with the sword tore through its totally unprotected wing, eliciting a roar of rage from its bestial face as it faced Matt. The axe swung around, swiping through the air at neck height for Matt. The new instinct kicked in once more and he ducked, feeling the currents in the air try to push him over as the axe passed mere inches above his head. 

A massive crack reverberated through his ears as the massive whip smashed down to his side, hurtling the blood around them both away and letting true air back in for a little while at least. He staggered backwards, away from the whip that was now recoiling before noticing the axe hurtling at his chest. 

_You can't dodge this._ The new instinct told him morosely. 

_Block it._

He raised his sword, eyes caught on the blue line of light that trailed behind his sword for a fraction of a second before his eyes locked back onto the incoming axe. The two met with a jarring force that threatened to knock Matt out as he was thrown backwards by it. He shook his head to clear it, noticing that the axe and its wielder had also backed off a step or maybe two. 

"You fight well, for a human. But no more toying with you. Now your skull shall be added to the skull throne! Blood for the Blood God!" 

It snarled, its face changing into an even more feral half dog and half human state. It hefted the massive axe in its right hand, swinging it around its gauntleted fist like a mace. A blur of pitch black, dull reds, and bare metal replaced the axe, moving far to fast for Matt to see it as anything clearer now. The spherical blur sped towards his face, forcing him to duck as it hurtled towards him. 

It stopped. It drew back. 

The other gauntleted fist rocked towards him, smashed him in the face, and hurled him backwards to the ground. Jagged rocks lacerated his back as he slid along the rough ground. Blood oozed out of his back onto the already bloodstained rocks. Blood flowed freely out of his crumpled nose. He lay there immobile on his back, a spat of coughing wracking his body, several blood covered fragments of teeth exploding out of his mouth as he did. 

The coughing subsided, replaced with a groan as he raised his head up to look at his opponent. A flash of all encompassing metal loomed in front of his eyes for a fraction of a second. 

Bone cracked. 

Matt felt his body lifted up and thrown away by the side of the axe that hit him. Speckles of colour swam in front of his eyes as blackness tried to encroach on his vision. Time seemed to stop as his body finally registered the massive damage he'd taken. Blood poured out of his broken body in at least a hundred places. Skin had been pierced. Bone had been shattered. Ligaments had been torn. Muscles had been bisected. Not a single place on him should have been pain free. But not a single place of him felt pain as the blackness covered his vision, white now encroaching on that as the black had those eternal moments beforehand. 

_You are just human…._ It was the same voice that had helped him during the fight. His mind flickered back into action, concentrating on the voice, looking for more help. Looking for a way to escape obliteration. 

_He is a Greater Daemon…._

_You could not hope to win on your own…._

Matt's mind listened to the words, absorbed the words, and accepted them as an irrefutable truth. There was no way he could beat that monster. There was no way he could avenge Mimi. The entire fight against the monster had been in vain. The entire thing had just been a lesson in pointlessness. 

_But you do not have to fight on your own…._

Yes. That was his way out. He could fight as a group. They had fought together before. Him and Gabumon. And all the others as well. Tai and Agumon. Izzi and Tentomon. Sora and Biyomon. Joe and Gomamon. And Mimi and Palmon. His mind drifted back towards Mimi, drifted back towards the brutal immolation of her that he'd seen. Anger tried to flood his mind once more, but only a surreal peacefulness could enter his shutting down mind. 

_But they are not here…._

_Only I am here to help you…._

_As I already have with telling you how to avoid the daemon's blows…._

_I can help you more…._

_If you let me…._

A flash of acceptance passed through his mind towards the voice. A purple haze descended over his body, torturous pain descending with it. A small shriek of agony escaped his blood filled throat as his body repaired itself. Bones knitted themselves together, grating against nerve endings with each sped up millimetre of recovery. Ligaments and tendons snapped back into place with whip cracks of pain. Broken muscles stretched out to where they should be, fusing back together in the white hot searing feeling of pain. Skin replaced itself where the many gouges, lacerations, and punctures had been, each piece tearing at his body as it reformed. A quick fit of coughing once more wracked his throat, expelling the blood from within his lungs. Finally, his body fully repaired, his eyes snapped open. 

A flash of metal glinted in front of his face and he rolled to the left, shards of rock showering over him to no effect as the axe smashed straight through where he had been lying comatose less than a second before. Quickly he leapt to his feet, as the purple haze contracted itself around him, forming itself into full chain and plate mail armour that glowed with the same purple light. Almost instantly it changed from purple to the same shade of blue as Matt's sword, morphing into what looked like samurai armour at the same time, all before Matt had a chance to look at it. 

He started to raise his sword upwards, ready to defend himself before noticing that the daemon was still pulling its axe out of the ground and its whip was in its left hand, the side farthest away from him. He darted forward, nearly a blur of motion with his new almost supernatural speed. Arcs of blue light flickered around in front of him as he lashed out at the daemon's axe arm with his sword. A flurry of short sharp screeches greeted his ears as the sword made shallow cuts into the armour before being deflected away. 

He jumped back as the axe was finally wrenched free of the rocks imprisoning it, bringing his sword up automatically and blocking the lash of the whip that had been aimed at his head. _I can't pierce that armour…. And I'll never hit its head…. There must be a way through, but what…?_

The axe swung round at him again, the blade slicing through the air with an audible hiss. He added his second hand to the sword, gripping it in both hands and planting his feet wide apart, ready to half parry and half block the blow. The blades collided and forced him backwards across the ground several steps until the axe's momentum had been stilled. An angry snarl came from the daemon's mouth as it pulled its axe back for another swing. 

Matt darted in with ease, his new found speed aiding him greatly as he struck out with his sword, plunging it with both hands into the armoured arm again. Smoke sizzled up around where he held the blade, trying to force it in as the air vibrated in loud protest. A flash of movement out of the corner of his eye forced him to dive to the floor, rolling to his left as the whip smashed into the ground, shattering rock and spraying it up in a short lived fountain. 

He stood up quickly, spinning on the spot to face his opponent. He looked and saw its back, and unshielded wings. He sliced the sword at them even as the daemon turned around to face him. Blue light arced through the air in a semi circle before he drew his sword back, having missed the black leathery wings by mere millimetres. 

It cracked its whip into the ground four times in rapid succession, raising up four plumes of shattered rocks in between Matt and itself. It opened its maw and roared at Matt before speaking in its harsh tones while accidentally flicking bits of hot saliva over him. "You are annoying me! Why do you not just die?" 

Matt concentrated on the daemon, refusing to give into the taunt and reply, needing all the concentration he could possibly muster if he was going to pull off this next move without dying. Patiently he waited until the axe was inevitably raised up, ready to attempt to strike him down once more. He sprinted forward and leapt upwards, extended the sword in his hand as he did so. A shrieking hiss echoed out as his sword hit the armour underneath its arm, scratching a slight gouge upwards until it lodged in the armpit area. Blue and black smoke wisped out as the sword bit through the weaker armour, before sliding through with ease. 

The arm started to come down, elbow bent and ready to crush his skull if he stayed in place. He pulled his arm down, retracting the sword which now had dribbles of black ichors running down it and then fell to the floor leaning away from the daemon, doing a backwards roll and then jumping to his feet when it was done. 

His hands flew to his ears as the world was filled with noise. He didn't realise the beast could roar so loudly. It had just stared at its arm and the slowly building drips of blackness beneath it, and then just roared. He stepped backwards, trying futilely to get away from the noise. His sword vibrated in his hand, perhaps eager for more now that it had spilt blood and tried to stretch itself towards the daemon. 

The roaring subsided and the daemon looked at Matt, daggers glaring through him in both its eyes and snarl. It snapped its axe backwards and then extended its arm straight towards him while opening its gauntleted hand. The axe rocketed out, completely absorbing Matt's wide eyed attention as it spun, sliced, cleaved, and eviscerated its way through the air. His body leapt to the left, his right arm extending out to the right, holding the sword out to absorb what modicum of the blow it could. 

The shock jarred through him, destroying what control he had hoped to exert over his landing. Sword and axe flew away as his arm was wrenched backwards, his body tumbling to the ground where it crashed landed with a thud on the rocks which could no longer attack him thanks to his armour. 

He placed one hand on the ground and hefted himself to his feet, eyes quickly scanning around to find the daemon and his sword. The daemon was the easiest to spot, walking leisurely towards him with its whip coiled in its left hand, its right hanging down limply from its shoulder. Almost as quickly he found the sword, lying on the rocks eight or nine metres behind him. He stole one more glance at the daemon before sprinting towards his sword, diving the last metre or two with his hand outstretched to grab it. He rolled to a crouch and looked up in time to see the whip hit him. A dull pain echoed through his entire left side as it collided with and was turned away by his glowing armour. 

He put his left hand to his side, while planting the tip of the sword in the ground and using it to lever himself unsteadily upwards to his feet. He pulled the sword out of the ground and held it ready, his other hand still clutching his aching side, his mind dreading to think how easily it would have killed him had it not been for the armour. 

He charged headlong at the daemon, catching it by surprise. The whip struck down at the ground too slowly, striking the ground behind him and he dived around its left leg, quickly pirouetting to face its back once more. _I might not be able to hit his face… but the back of the head should be easier._

He crouched down and leapt up with all the strength his legs could muster. His right arm pulled back and then thrust forwards. Metal bit into the daemon's flesh. Smoke and sparks showered outwards as the sword plunged inwards. The daemon stiffened straight almost instantly, its hands opening in spasms, forcing it to drop the whip to the floor before it to crumpled to its knees, wrenching the sword loose of its neck as the body fell. 

A bellowing roar sounded from the daemon's throat as black ichors poured out of the gaping wound in its neck. Gurgling sounds overtook the roar and it finally quietened as it body fell completely to the ground, its face smashing into the rocks with a booming crunch. 

Matt looked at the fallen daemon and smirked. _I did it…. I actually did it!_

A groan suddenly sounded. The daemon rose to its knees once more, effort visible from the way its body shook. Slowly it planted first one foot on the ground, then the other, finally standing up and then turning to face Matt. "You… thought you… could kill me?" 

Its breath came in ragged bouts, gasps almost. It picked its axe up from the ground, strength apparently returning to its body and took to the sky again. Its damaged wings beat hard against the air, flying far into the horizon. Matt stared in shock at the shrinking dot in the sky, barely noticing as the blood turned back into the air it should have been and the ground became grassy, the jagged rocks being replaced with a multitude of pleasant flowers. 

A figure far above watched with interest and chuckled quietly to itself, making absolutely sure to keep almost silent, despite the fact that it knew it was invisible to anything that might have looked its way. Almost with a sigh the figure waved one arm lethargically and looked as the blackness descended from all directions, swallowing up the world around them and destroying it in seconds. 

* * *

Matt sat up, staring straight ahead. He saw the others staring at him. He felt something wet on his forehead and reached one hand up, pulling away a piece of drenched fabric when he pulled his hand back. 

"You're back!" TK shouted happily as he saw his brother wake up after being asleep with a fever for so long. 

"Yeah…. I'm back bro." He replied getting unsteadily to his feet. 

"Glad you're better Matt. Joe said you had a bad fever. You slept for nearly two days." Tai said, his face showing both sadness and joy towards Matt at the same time. 

"Thanks Tai." Matt said as he looked around for Mimi. _Please say this was all a dream._ He thought. All it would take to know was for Mimi to be there, safe and sound. He looked around once more to be sure. She wasn't there. It hadn't all been a dream. 

"You really should rest Matt. After how hard we all ran, and then with that fever…. I'm surprised you can walk to be honest." Joe said with concern in his voice as he passed some food to Matt. "Here, eat it. You need all the strength you can get." 

Tai walked slightly to one side, so he was facing all of them "Guys, we need to fight that thing. If we don't it'll pick us off one by one. What do you say?" 

He watched them for their response. Nods and a general agreement for his idea came back. They knew that they had to get this thing before it got them. Only Matt remained silent, looking at Tai, leaving his food untouched while he did so. 

"What about you Matt?" Tai asked, looking back at him carefully. 

"We are going. Not to protect us though. To avenge Mimi." Matt said quietly as he turned away from them to hide the tears forming in his eyes. 

"Don't pretend not to care Matt." Sora said. "We've all cried over Mimi. But we need to get this thing now. If we spend time to wallow in our misery we might never get it." 

"I- I guess you're right. Thanks Sora." He said with a smile as he managed to brush the tears back. "We need to go now." 

He stood up and scoffed down his food quickly, heading towards Izzy, presuming or hoping that he knew where they would need to go. He didn't quite make it before being interrupted. The computer started beeping and Izzy tapped away at a few keys "We've got a message from Gennai." 

A few more keys and he brought the mail from Gennai up on the screen and they all gathered round, careful not to crows Izzy and his computer too much this time. 

"Digidestined. I have some news that may be important." Gennai's voice said from the speaker. There was a pause. 

"And that news would be?" Agumon asked. 

"Oh yes, almost forgot to tell you what it was. Some kind of force field has been activated around Digiworld. Every portal has been shut down as far as I can tell. So these… things are trapped here. You must destroy them. The damage they are doing is immeasurable." 

"Daemons." Matt said simply. 

"What?" TK asked. 

"Daemons. At least that's what the one in my dream called itself. A Greater Daemon." Matt replied. 

"That was just a dream though, surely?" Sora asked 

"No. It was too murderous. Too real to be a dream." 


	5. Immaterium Part 5

PeterN: Thanks for the reviews

Emma/Ems – Yep, a daemon can be described as an ugly thing, although it would be uglier if it were a Great Unclean One. As this is a Greater Daemon it's big as well. Thanks for the compliment, no ones ever said I was even good at writing before ^_^

SpacedOutDragon – Not quite sure how to get the Eldar in there, but the idea goes into the melting pot along with all the others people give me.

Theo 'Blitz' Leung – I'm not sure whether other races will get in there. The Eldar, The Necrons, and the Imperium are the only ones I could conceivably write in. Orks would just get stupid, and Tyrannids well; you can understand why I wouldn't include them. This part is mainly written because of your comment, it looks like this needs to be cleared up a little.

**Immaterium (Part 5)**

** **

"That could explain why his crest was going haywire." Izzy said deep in thought.

"What do you mean? What was my crest doing?" Matt asked in confusion.

"Hmm…. It was the day after we collapsed after running from that thing…"

TK woke up with a yawn and looked around. All his friends were still asleep and unable to see his eyes, red through crying most of the night during his sleep. He slowly got up, still in despair at what he had caused. He could hear water running nearby, he went to the stream and washed his face to wake himself up, and to wash away the tears. And to try and wash away the guilt; it didn't work. He went back and sat down in silence, waiting for the others to wake up.

Tai and Sora woke up a few minutes later, although they still looked like they were dead to TK. Faces were grey and misery was etched into them as though they were statues. Almost everything reminded him of death. Of Mimi's death. TK buried his head in his knees while Tai and Sora went off silently to collect food, subconsciously watching the sky for the creature.

"She isn't dead TK."

"Huh?" He looked up in surprise, Palmon was standing in front of him.

"Thanks to those digivices we share energy. I'd know if she… if anything like that happened to Mimi."

"But the scream…" he said as he heard the heart-rending sound in his head yet again.

"You know how scared Mimi gets."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." TK said with a hint of happiness in his voice.

"Of course Palmon is TK. You can't blame yourself for an event which hasn't even occurred." Izzy added.

"Yeah. You are right. It wasn't my fault."

A faint noise could be heard in the background, like the wind blowing through trees in the autumn. But it was neither windy nor autumn. The forest slowly got lighter as a powerful presence withdrew from the area.

_You may have escaped that trap, but my next one will get you._ Something thought.

"Did you guys hear a voice?" Joe asked.

"I don't think so, it was too quiet to make it out though." Sora replied, back with some food for them to eat. "Someone wake the sleepyhead up."

Joe nudged Matt with the tow of his shoe. "Come on, Sora and Tai have got some food for us…. Wake up Matt…. Matt?"

Joe knelt down beside the tossing form and put his hand on Matt's forehead, it was burning. Momentary panic passed over Joe's face before he could hide it, but it was enough for TK to tell something was wrong.

"What's up with him Joe?" TK asked, his voice returning to its hysterical state of the previous night. "Tell me!"

"He's burning up. Someone get some cloth or something from the medical bag and drench it in the stream. We might be able to cool him down a little."

Sora quickly got some bandages out of the bag and ran towards the stream, temporarily forgetting about the threat of the creature. TK collapsed to the ground. _I've done it again. First Mimi. Then Matt. Why does this have to happen? Why?_

Sora hurried back and placed the drenched bandages on Matt's forehead. They gathered round the prone form of Matt. Every now and then he would twitch or murmur something.

"What's he saying Joe?" Tai asked.

"I'm not sure. It sounds like he's saying Mimi's name over and over though."

Matt curled up all of a sudden, a single tear running from his left eye. Joe placed the bandages back on his forehead, it was getting hotter, but he couldn't say that while TK was listening. He was already having a hard time taking this in; he didn't need to know that his brother's temperature was rising dangerously. For a moment he caught the smell of burning hair and flesh. Almost giving into to the choking reflex he realised that nothing was burning here. Matt may have been burning up, but he most certainly wasn't on fire.

Matt straightened out and lay perfectly still suddenly, knocking the bandage off yet again. Joe placed it back on his forehead, it was dry. How could it be though? The bandage was soaking wet. He felt it again; dry? It hadn't been a moment ago.

Joe looked at Matt again, putting the bandage on his head to help keep TK calm if nothing else. _He can't be burning up that badly, can he? Surely that kind of temperature would kill him. _He stepped back and glanced at the currently rigid form of Matt. "There's nothing we can do except try and keep his temperature down."

"Look. Matt's crest!" TK shouted pointing at Matt's crest. The others followed his gaze. It was glowing as though trying to digivolve Gabumon, but the energy was going into Matt instead of out to Gabumon.

Izzy slowly crept towards it. "What's it doing?"

"His face is returning to normal. It isn't as red as before." Sora said. "…It's healing him!"

Joe went forward and felt Matt forehead. It was cooler than before; his look of optimism told everyone Matt was improving without him needing to say anything.

Matt's rigid form seemed to relax into a normal sleeping position for a few minutes before thrashing about wildly. They rushed to hold him down in case he injured himself. The crest pulsed once more then feel back to its usual relatively dull appearance at the same time Matt relaxed.

A few minutes later Matt sat straight up, bandage finally staying on his head.

"I think that's more or less what happened." Tai said, they had all pitched in to recount what had happened while he was feverous.

"Wow…" Matt breathed, "sounds like that dream was realer than I thought."

PeterN: This part was mainly to clear up some stuff that I did not make clear, and knowing me probably didn't include in the first place. Also I'm not sure if the digivices would give Palmon some kind of feeling if Mimi dies, or even if it would kill Palmon… that's an interesting thought. Please leave a review.


	6. Immaterium Part 6

PeterN: Thanks once again for the reviews.

{Death} – The battles will get here soon enough, there's one this section.

SpacedOutDragon – Thanks. This could just be me being slow but… what's an EM?

Emma/Ems – hehe ^_^. It's largely thanks to Bliss and the very good fics Realm Walker and Gemini Warriors (plus sequels) that this is Mimato. And I can't really kill one of them off… yet.

**Immaterium (Part 6)**

** **

"Yes, but we have bigger problems than what happened while you were asleep." Gennai said. "One of these daemons has found Myotismon, and it doesn't appear to be attacking."

"No…"

"Surely they'd never team up…"

"I knew it, we're going to die."

"Shut up Joe. We'll beat them together." Matt said, a look of anger in his eyes.

"It's impossible to tell whether they are fighting or not inside the castle. But the castle is still standing and the guards are still at the gate. You must hurry, if Myotismon and the daemon go through the gate then both worlds are doomed."

Myotismon stepped up to a stone pedestal. On it was an intricately carved device with square depressions in it. In his hand he held metallic looking cards.

"The digidestined think they are so smart, but in reality I am always one step ahead of them. Now I hold all…"

A door flew off its hinges, landing several metres down the room. All eyes fell to the open doorway, and the figure silhouetted in it's opening. Filling the entire doorway was a dark, shadowed form, wings visible to the side. It stepped through, stone floor creaking beneath its heavy footsteps. Light shone upon the creatures armour; pure black beneath, and painted in blood. Skulls jeered out of it, each one different from the last.

"Can't you tell I'm busy here?" Myotismon asked

"Busy?" It repeated in a similar tone to Myotismon, mocking him. "Busy!" Anger filled its voice. Glimpses of an axe could be seen as it moved almost to fast for eyes to follow. The face turned into a feral sneer of raw power, surprising even Myotismon.

"What are you?" Myotismon asked.

"I am a Greater Daemon. Now you will open that gate so I can go through." It roared axe brandished high as a threat.

"How dare you tell me, Lord Myotismon, what to do? Crimson Lightning!" The red energy shot out and snaked towards the Greater Daemon. It looked at them with a quizzical glance before deflecting them almost lazily with its giant axe.

"I said open it!" It roared as it flew towards Myotismon, axe whirling in a frenzied arc of death towards Myotismon's head. He leaped backwards avoiding the blow and watched as the Demidramon came to life. They quickly surrounded the Greater Daemon and prepared to destroy it at Myotismon's command.

"You fool. You cannot defeat the likes of me. Especially in my own castle! Demidramon, destroy him!" The creatures lurched forwards as one.

The Greater Daemon kicked one of them in the face and swung his axe in a wide arc at two of the other's heads. Both dodged back from the axe as the one kicked in the face went sprawling out of the combat.

_Three on one. This is too easy. Not enough blood either._ The Greater Daemon thought as it calmly dismembered the next Demidramon, leaving it to live until it bled to death.

The remaining two looked at their fallen comrade for a fraction of a second before they too lost their limbs in a flurry of slashes from a weapon that shouldn't have harmed them.

The Greater Daemon stepped up to Myotismon. "Now open it! Before I get angry!" It roared into Myotismon's face knocking him over with the volume alone.

Myotismon meekly got to his feet and trudged to the pedestal, remarkably unscathed despite being in the middle of the short but bloody battle. He watched as the Demidramon vaporised into a black cloud of data and turned to face the pedestal with a sigh. He tossed the cards into it. "There. It will open."

There was an explosion and all heads turned to the gateway. The door was buckling from the outside of it.

The Greater Daemon stared at it in shock as the gateway exploded in an impressive display of unharnessed power. All eyes stared at the gaping crater that was where the gateway once stood.

The Greater Daemon slowly turned to face Myotismon, pure anger showing in its eyes. It's armour shone with a black light and the skulls leered faster and faster. Constantly mocking the one that was about to join them. All eyes followed the axe as it swung faster than any of them could move. A whirling sphere of destruction. It slammed into a wall, creating a new crater before moving into another wall. The Greater Daemon continued to demolish the wall for a few seconds before its eyes fell upon a slowly retreating Myotismon.

It flew up into the air, axe smashing through the ceiling into the room above. "Blood for the Blood God!" It screamed flying straight towards Myotismon, everything else stopped as all watched the reaper of death itself. Even in slow motion the axe was impossible to follow. Glimpses of metal spreading out and heading straight towards Myotismon. It hit. Clothing shredded and flesh sprayed out against the walls in an instant. Cold blood spewed out of the body as the axe disintegrated it. Blood flew across the room as the axe reached veins and arteries. A pathetic screech was heard as bone was turned into a fine powder under the onslaught of the axe. Time returned to normal as the rest of the corpse exploded into a mist of flesh, blood, and bone.

The Greater Daemon looked around, there were still creatures here, frozen in shock and fear. It flew straight upwards into, and through, the ceiling. Room after room blurred by until he passed into air. He looked down at the castle, it looked as though it would collapse any second. More blood would be spilt. Today had been a good day even if the gateway had been destroyed. He flew off into the horizon as the castle began to collapse.

Gatomon looked round at the destruction. Stone dust trickled onto her head and she looked around. The castle was collapsing! She ran through the maze of corridors and rooms as fast as she could, all the other digimon didn't seem to notice what was happening. They were all frozen solid, all except Demidevimon who was flying through the hole created by the Daemon.

The ceiling collapsed to her right. She dived to the left, narrowly avoiding several tonnes of solid rock. She got to her feet and ran again. All she could hear was her heart. Beating faster and faster with each step. Pounding away at her ribcage. Feeling as though it would explode. She wouldn't stop. She couldn't stop. She had to keep running. To stop meant deletion. Rooms collapsed behind her as she sprinted the last stretch to the entrance. Just a few more metres and she would be out. There was a rumble ahead of her and she glanced up. The entire corridor was collapsing. She looked at the entrance, just five metres away. Four metres. Three metres….

The digidestined were running towards the castle. They didn't have time to stop. There it was, just a kilometre away. A speck flew up from the castle and promptly disappeared, unnoticed by all of them.

They slowed to a walk, nearly out of energy when the got there. Then slowed to a stop when they saw what was left. The castle was a pile of rubble; there was no entrance where the entrance should be. Just a still, white tail with a golden ring on it sticking out from the rocks.

PeterN: Well there was another fight scene, made the Greater Daemon seem a little more powerful this time. (I'm still leaving it in there Emma/Ems ^_^) Please leave a review.


	7. Immaterium Part 7

PeterN: Thanks again for the reviews. I think that was the longest single review I've ever seen ^_^

SpacedOutDragon – Wow, such a long review (well, ideas really). The turn from the anime was going to happen sooner or later, I live in England and we only saw the Dark Masters for the first time today (I also noticed just how annoying that narrator is). Myotismon just got splattered against his castle walls, and then had it fall down on him; I'll leave you to decide whether he's dead or not (it's not like I know). Is it really safe for them to split up and two of them go after something that so easily beat Myotismon? I had intended for the powers of Chaos to slightly corrupt them, it has already been happening. I didn't even intend to write the mild Mimato bits I did, I'm really not good at writing romance, but it is a good idea. Good ideas all of them and "teach the GUO a lesson in personal hygiene" hehe. Izzy going against the Lord Of Change was one of my few ideas I got before writing it, I'm glad someone else thought it was a good idea too. But submitting it to Portent? Is it really that good? And have you happened to notice that many WH40K players actively hate Digimon, and Pokémon. This is getting too long now time to move on….

{Death} – I'm getting the feeling you like the fight scenes.

Emma/Ems – Digimon do have blood. They may not in the anime series but that is because it is intended for younger people to be able to watch. They therefore have to remove stuff like that, well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ^_^. Seriously though I believe they have something that is equivalent to blood, just made out of data instead of organic matter.

Theo "Blitz" Leung – Damn you like Eldar! The time difference is irrelevant, just take account of the fact that the Digiworld, Warhammer 40,00, Earth linked to Digiworld, and us are all in different dimensions (i.e. time can pass at different speeds, and variable speed in a few such as the Immaterium).

**Immaterium (Part 7)**

Mr Patterson looked down at the control panel, sirens were blaring and red lights were blinking on it. His hands flew over the controls as he expertly deciphered the gibberish that was scrolling up the screen at an impossible rate. He slowed down and stopped. Then let out a sigh, he was going to have to see his boss again. First he would have to find out some more information, a tedious process, and one that he could partially give to his co-workers.

"Paul."

"Yes sir?"

"You're in charge. Investigate that dimensional gate anomaly."

"But you were on duty when it happened. You can't leave…. Sir"

"That anomaly happened a few seconds after you were put in charge. Do you understand?"

"…Yes sir!"

"Good." Mr Patterson said as he wandered off to his room for a nice long sleep, he could probably grab half a days sleep while they puzzled out what was going on.

Back in the control room they were efficiently carrying out procedures that had been drilled into them before they were accepted for the post.

"Get me a reading on the magnitude of that anomaly." Paul said as he started finding its origin while someone else was already finding its target dimension. Everyone else was checking the ICF for damage for leaks of anything equal to or greater than the size or charge of a proton.

"Got it. Magnitude measures three point one terra-joules."

"Three point one? That's too weak to create a dimensional rift even if the ICF wasn't stopping it. Ideas anyone?" He looked around at the blank looks on their faces. "Apparently not."

"Got the target dimension as well." Someone said looking up at one of the larger screens as it appeared next to the origin. "One rotation away…. It wouldn't need as much energy as the average rift…. Could it be a stabilised gateway?"

All eyes turned to focus on him. A stabilised gateway between Daemons and other dimensions. That would be an extremely bad thing. Especially if there were strings of stabilised gateways as was almost certain.

Sora rushed towards where the tail was and started moving the rubble off of the digimon that had to be underneath. The others soon joined in and quickly moved the rubble off the unfortunate digimon. She groaned a few times before opening her eyelids. She squinted against the light of the overhead sun, trying to make out the blurred shapes. She recognised them and jumped into a fighting stance, glanced back at the rubble of the castle, then back at her rescuers. The odds were not good. She dropped the fighting stance and relaxed her muscles in an attempt to throw them off before sprinting away from the group.

"We move all that rubble, and that's the thanks we get." Joe complained as they stared at the rapidly reducing shape as it sprinted into the distance.

"It doesn't matter Joe." Matt stated coldly. "We can tell these Daemons won't team up with any digimon. And I bet they'll probably kill each other given half a chance."

"I suppose you're right. Let's go. You lead Izzy, you have the map after all." Joe replied, eyes fixed upon Matt in a harsh stare.

Sora stepped in between them, breaking the staring match. "What's up with you two? We're on the same side. We can't fight these Daemons and each other." She looked at the cold looks in their eyes. "We'll never find Mimi at this rate, she might as well be dead for all the help you two are being."

The group watched as Matt and Joe's heads dropped, both muttering something under their breath, too quiet for anyone to hear.

"This way guys." Izzy said as he started to walk off. "The nearest one's only about 15 kilometres away…. That is if we catch up to it before it moves off."

"Let's go then." Matt said, defiance heard in his voice.

_Don't worry Mimi. We'll rescue you._ Joe thought. Hoping that it would maybe cheer Mimi up somehow, assuming she was still alive. _No, you have to be alive. Life would be hell if you died._

Yes. Come to me foolish humans. I need your energy.

The creature rose to its feet. Its four arms glowing faintly in the pale gloom that surrounded the creature. Jewels, embedded into the creature's body, glinted in what light there was. Its hooves made clicking sounds on the hard ground as it turned around surveying the damage it had wreaked here. It looked back to the girl dressed in pink who was slowly but surely rebuilding the place into a more appropriate form. Her eyes glazed over and half closed. Her movements slow and almost autonomous.

_I'll have to do something about her clothes…_ It pondered deep in thought for a moment, a wide smile breaking across its face as it started to laugh in a sweet, melodic note.

Joe froze, a smile spreading across his face. There was that sound again. Pureness captured in a single, sweet, melodic, laugh. He started walking again, a smile fixed on his face, contrasting with the grim looks of the other five. He hurried to catch up with them as the place finally appeared on the horizon.

It was some sort of building. Not anymore, but it had been. Whatever it had been, it now had one and a half walls remaining, and a lot of rubble that could be seen even from this distance.

Izzy's digivice started to bleep, he took it off and looked at the screen. On the very edge of it was a flashing dot; Mimi. "Mimi's in there!"

They started running towards the building. They got there to find it empty. On one side was a pile of rubble that had been arranged into a rectangular platform with steps leading up to it, someone had been here and been building something out of the ruins.

Mimi walked by them carrying another block of rubble and placed it down on the platform, seemingly oblivious of the others who were staring in shock. The girl who normally complained about everything was doing hard labour without caring.

"Mimi?" Palmon asked. She walked straight by towards another piece of rubble. "Come on Mimi, what's wrong?"

"She looks hypnotised…" Izzy muttered.Matt and Joe stared at each other, daggers in their eyes. Seething anger barely repressed beneath the last shreds of friendship and reliability.

"This is your fault!" They both shouted at the same time, spinning to face each other, fists raised and ready to fight.

"You ran away into the forest before the rest of us Matt. You stopped us by staying asleep. We could have stopped this from happening if it wasn't for you!" Joe shouted running towards Matt, fist drawn back.

"Yeah? Well you're always slowing us down. We wouldn't have been near that lake if it weren't for you. You blame me for this carrying on so long? It's your fault that it started in the first place!" Matt ducked under Joes left hook and charged into his stomach sending Joe to the floor. They backed off and starting circling around each other, each looking for a drop in the others defence.

"Matt, Joe, stop it." Tai said, losing the courage to do anything but stay back and watch.

"What are you doing Matt?" TK asked, losing hope now that his brother was fighting his friend.

Joe dashed forward delivering a powerful right jab to Matt's face sending him back a bit. Joe followed up with more punches as fast as he could, each one weakening as he quickly ran out of stamina. He backed off to get his breath back and push his glasses back up.

Matt wiped the blood from his face and looked at it for a second, then looked at Joe. Anger filled his eyes as he smashed into Joe sending them both onto the stone platform. Both noticed the change in the ground.

"I can finish you off easily now Joe. This is what you get for hating us."

"Not if I get you first. You never make up your mind, and you jump to conclusions too fast. You're always nearly killing us. And you accuse me of hating the group? It's just you that I hate."

"The feeling's mutual."

They charged together and crashed straight into each other. Joe being slightly heavier knocked Matt back a fraction and followed with another punch to Matt's side. Spinning round as he threw the punch, Matt's eyes widened in fear as his fist connected with Mimi's beautiful face.

A hushed silence fell over the entire area as Mimi fell down unconscious.

They turned to face each other; every bit of anger they could muster was visible in their eyes. Both of them hated the other for what the other had caused to happen to Mimi.

"You meant to hit her. You bastard!" Joe screamed as he ran at Matt, missing and running off the stone platform.

"You're the one who made sure I was facing her! It was you who wanted to hit her! You were too chicken to even do that though!" Matt yelled at the top of his voice and jumped off the platform kicking Joe in the head on his descent.

He collapsed back and stared up at Matt as he landed hard. He felt a sharp hit to his head and vaguely realised Matt was kicking him.

_He'll do this to Mimi if I don't stop him. Joe_ thought and leapt to his feet, blood trailing down the side of his face. He punched Matt as hard as he could, sending him crashing into the side of the platform.

Everyone else stared in shock. Too scared to do anything.

"Matt! Stop!" TK shouted. Joe and Matt looked at him for a moment before turning back towards each other. "Isn't Joe your friend anymore Matt?" Matt turned to look at TK, a strange look passed over his eyes for a scant moment, before he turned back to Joe. "And Joe, you're not the same reliable person we all know and love." Joe turned to TK as well, the same look passing over his eyes for a moment before he turned back to Matt.

"Please, stop it!" TK cried out. His crest pulsed bright, forcing everyone to cover their eyes.

Joe looked at his fist raised and ready to punch Matt in the face. He stared for a moment before collapsing to the floor, the horror of what he'd just done dawning on him. Matt was doing a similar thing and now had his head between his knees, sobbing quietly at the friend he nearly lost.

PeterN: Slightly longer than normal, but I have to go to sleep now. I have to thank SpacedOutDragon for the idea behind that section. These ideas, suggestions, and comments are appreciated. Please leave a review.


	8. Immaterium Part 8

PeterN: Thanks for the reviews.

Emma/Ems – Ouch…

Theo 'Blitz' Leung – They weren't dumb comments. I like your comments and suggestions. They help me carry on writing. Dimensional rifts can be fun ^_^. I don't think they are a particularly unusual combination; there is a war for the survival of humanity going on in both.

{Death} – Do you not like Mimi by any chance?

Space Dragon – Why shouldn't I listen to my reviewers? Joe and Matt fighting was a good, no brilliant, idea so it got included. I can't make them all go Mega. Digimon episodes have only got to the first episode with the Dark Masters here in England. Only Agumon and Gabumon can Warp Digivolve so far (I don't know what the others turn into, what they look like, or what their attacks are -_-). Also none of them have Warp Digivolved at this point in the Anime. As for Portent I may submit it, probably not though. And I'm definitely not submitting it to rgmw!!! But I'm going to have to make you wait a bit longer… 

Soul ManZ () – In response to your reviews to part 3, 4, and 5. I think there is something wrong with your view of Nurgle being very cute and cuddly….

Ok, I'm carrying on with the story before that train of thought causes me to become even more ill than I already am (Damn you Nurgle!)…

**Immaterium (Part 8)**

** **

A pair of eyes watched them silently with bated breath.

_No. You were supposed to kill each other._ It raised its sword in a moment of anger before quickly lowering it again; giving away its position might be unwise for the moment. Its view fell upon TK's crest. _What is that thing? That is what broke my powers. But how could something as pitiful as that defeat me; a Keeper of Secrets. I am supposed to know all secrets. Yet this escapes me. I know their innermost thoughts and desires. I set up that fight to the death by manipulating them. How could I not know of those things?_

"The Daemon isn't here anymore." Izzy said as he consulted his computer. "Let's get Mimi and get out of here. We can fight better after we've recovered from this." He looked around at his friends. Matt and Joe were on the raised stone platform, bloodied and bruised from their fight. Tai and Sora were standing near each other, still in shock from seeing Matt and Joe trying to literally kill each other. TK was smiling, happy that the fight was over. Agumon and Biyomon were also standing in shock, just like Tai and Sora. Patomon was on TK's head, seemingly unperturbed at the fight now that it had passed. While Gabumon and Gomamon had collapsed to the floor, completely drained of energy, the same way Matt and Joe probably were now.

And then there was Mimi. Unconscious on the edge of the stone platform. A bruise beginning to form to the left of her mouth, a small trail of blood seeping out of it. Palmon was beside her, trying to wake her up but failing. Matt _had_ been trying to kill Joe if he had hit her that hard.

They slowly went over to Matt and Joe, shock still slowing their responses. They were in a worse shape than Izzy had originally thought. Both were covered in blood, cuts, and bruises. Joe had a nasty gash along his forehead, while Matt was bleeding profusely from the back of his neck. They worked quickly to bandage the larger cuts up, and hoped that the smaller ones wouldn't get infected.

They went over to Mimi, the sight of Matt and Joe's injuries finally snapping them out of their shock, but not their silence. She had a faint bruise to the left of her mouth and a small trickle of blood running down from her lip. Apart from that she appeared fine, assuming they could wake her up.

Tai and Sora helped get the still unconscious Mimi to her feet while Izzy scanned his computer map for somewhere they could shelter until they recovered. A few seconds passed with only the furious tapping of keys breaking the silence.

"This way guys." Izzy said setting off towards a fairly close hill. "There's a network of caves in their according to this, and it's the closest shelter I could find."

Matt and Joe had got up by now, avoiding each other and walking in total silence. Tai and Sora looked at the other four walking away for a few moments, then set about dragging Mimi along with them.

Several hours later they arrived at a yawning cave mouth. Mimi was now awake but also walking silently not looking at either Joe or Matt. Much to the relief of the others she was walking normally, and her eyes weren't glazed over.

They went inside, none really sure how to break the silence that had enveloped them all since they left, apart from a few minutes after Mimi woke up and started complaining.

Izzy saw a small stream running through the cave. "You'd better wash those cuts. You don't want them getting infected." He said, voice booming because of the perpetual silence and the echoes of the cave.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right Izzy." Matt said getting up and going to the far side of the cavern where the stream was.

"Good idea, we've survived evil digimon, don't need infections killing us." Joe said as he followed Matt to the stream.

Matt looked at the cuts on his arms as he washed them, one was already going yellow. _Great, first I go crazy and try and kill Joe. Now I'm going to lose my arm through a cut._

Joe walked up behind him. "Matt…" he whispered, not sure of how to continue. "I-I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I felt like I was doing the right thing, that you wanted to hurt Mimi…." He broke off realising how stupid the last part had sounded. Matt would never try to hurt any of them, except Tai now and then.

"Don't be Joe. It was my fault as well. I felt that you wanted to hurt Mimi as well. I don't know what happened. Something must have made us do that."

"The Daemon you think?"

"If it was as powerful as the one in my dre… no nightmare looked, then it most probably was." Matt responded with a solemn look on his face. "Either that or we're both going mad over Mimi." He added with a smirk before going back to washing his cuts and dried blood away.

With the most of the dried blood washed away they both looked in a lot better condition than they did ten minutes before. They walked back to the group and heard a distressed Mimi talking in-between sobs.

"…it was terrible. That thing had me building a shrine to its God. And I couldn't stop myself. I could see and feel everything I was doing, even when I saw Matt and Joe fighting. I wanted to stop tem, but couldn't do anything about where I was walking, let alone help them." Her voice had risen to an insanely high pitch and speed, making it impossible for anyone to fully hear what she was saying. She looked around at their disgusted looking faces. "You hate me for it, don't you?" She said flatly, voice more or less normal again.

"Don't say that Mimi." Matt said returning to the group along with Joe. "We don't hate you, we never could."

Mimi sniffed a bit. "Thanks Matt." Then stood up and went over to him before slapping him in the face. "That's for punching me." She said as the others sniggered a little. Mimi turned to Joe and slapped him as well. "And that's for trying to kill Matt."

Matt and Joe sat there, faces bright red through embarrassment. "Mimi. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to punch you. It wasn't my fault." Matt said.

"I'm sorry as well Mimi, we couldn't help ourselves when we were fighting. We both felt like the other wanted to hurt you" Joe added on the end then seeing Mimi's angry face added a bit more. "The Daemon manipulated us Mimi. The same as it did you."

Mimi's face fell and turned as red as Matt and Joe's. "I'm sorry you two. I shouldn't have slapped you. Now can we go to sleep? I feel tired."

"Good way to change the topic Mimi." Sora laughed. "You're right though it has been a long day for us, and probably worse for you three."

"Yeah. We can get that Daemon in the morning. We'll show it what happens to those who hurt our friends." Tai added enthusiastically. "I'll guard first, Sora can take over after me, and Izzy can do the last stint." He looked round seeing if anyone disagreed before going slightly towards the entrance with Agumon. He looked back and watched the others go to sleep before turning round and staring at the star-filled sky.

"Do you think we'll be able to beat that thing?" Agumon asked

"Of course we can. We beat Devimon and Etemon didn't we?"

"Yeah. We did. But I've never seen or heard of that thing we saw. At least we were up against enemies we knew. We know nothing about these things."

"Come on Agumon. You're the mon, you can beat it!"

"Shut up Tai, we're trying to sleep back here." Came Mimi's voice from inside the cavern. All of them fell silent and waited out their time, watching for any signs of trouble.

Tai got up and walked to Sora. "Come on, time to swap." He shook her gently to wake her up, getting only mumbles in response. He shook her a bit harder. "Come on Sora. I want to go to sleep now."

"Leave us alone." She mumbled. "Why don't you let us stay here."

_Us? Stay? What's she dreaming about?_ Tai thought and shook her again, this time succeeding in waking her.

She opened her eyes and saw Tai staring back at her. "You didn't leave Tai." She said with a smile on her lips. A look of surprise came over her face and she wildly looked around, remembering where she was after a few seconds.

"Wha…?"

"Uh…. Nevermind Tai. It doesn't matter. I'll take over now. You and Agumon can go to sleep. Come on Biyomon. Let's leave the boys to get some sleep." She hurriedly said and darted away to the entrance leaving Tai looking at her in surprise for a few seconds before he lay down and fell asleep.

"What was that about Sora?" Biyomon asked after a while of silence had passed.

"Nothing important. Just a dream."

"Oh." Biyomon said as she lay down, feeling herself drift off to sleep.

A short while later Sora also surrendered to her tiredness, leaving the group with no one watching for danger, but someone watching them.

PeterN: Out of time to write anymore. Just time to upload this before I leave for a few hours. What is watching them? Please leave a review.


	9. Immaterium Part 9

PeterN: Thanks once again for the reviews, I think there's only four of you reading this.

Space Dragon – I could look up the information on the Mega level digimon, but that won't let me see their personas. Even though I don't really include them much I still prefer to know how they act, sound, etc…. The Keeper of Secrets watching them you think, you'll have to read to find out. Yes, you may sense some Taiora there, whether your just reading what you want to in-between the lines is another matter ^_^.

Theo 'Blitz' Leung – Nope, haven't thought of that, but you may have noticed that this Bloodthirster is more powerful than your "average" Bloodthirster. Besides, the ICF is in the way… for the moment.

Emma/Ems – Thanks. Why you asking me for thesaurus words though?

**Immaterium (Part 9)**

** **

The eyes peered over the small shrubs, the things body completely hidden. Behind it thousands more eyes could be seen through the darkness. Slowly they moved forwards towards the gaping cave mouth where Sora and Biyomon where fast asleep. A single one of them moved towards the cave, the rest of them stopping. It went into the semi-light thrown off by the fire Agumon had started earlier. The small green creature crept forward, keeping lower to the ground to normal with its eyestalks sunken close to its head.

A wild jabbering of voices erupted from its companions behind it. It spun round trying to silence them before they awoke any of the digidestined or their digimon. It was too slow. Biyomon woke up and peered into the gloom, half hidden shadows flitting between the scare shrubbery surrounding the cave.

_Shrubbery? I don't remember seeing any plants on the way here._ Biyomon thought. Some of the shrubs fell over a little further away. For a brief moment a digimon could be seen where the shrub was before it darted behind another one. _That was a…_

"Sora! Wake up!" Biyomon shouted, managing to wake up the entire group.

"What is it?" Sora asked sleepily.

"Numemon! They've surrounded the cave!" Biyomon shouted as the fake plants fell to the ground revealing a seemingly infinite number of Numemon. Sora slowly got to her feet and started walking backwards while the Numemon stayed immobile.

There was a sound. Every Numemon ran forward towards the cave. Sora turned round and sprinted while Biyomon flew into the cave. "Numemon behind. Run!" Sora screamed as she sprinted past the still waking group. They saw the horde stretching as far as they could see and quickly joined Sora running.

"There's a network of caves isn't it?" Tai asked gasping for breath while ducking incoming sludge.

"Yes. Miles of it." Izzy responded, slowly falling behind. "But we can't run much longer. Still hours till dawn."

"Hurry up Izzy!" Joe shouted as he saw the Numemon gaining on Izzy.

"I can't." Izzy said simply as he collapsed to the floor. The group slowed down, not sure of what to do.

"Go!" Tai shouted as he sprinted back to Izzy and helped him to his feet. "Run unless you want to get a sludge bath Izzy!" Both of them sprinted off again, slowly drawing away from the Numemon who were also tiring.

Tai and Izzy dashed through into another cavern, probably miles from where they had started. Out of breath they collapsed to the ground, no longer capable of running from the Numemon. Murphy's Law had finally caught up with them it appeared.

"Harpoon Torpedo!" Ikkakumon shouted blasting the ceiling of the cavern. All watched the rubble fall and completely seal the cavern off from the advancing Numemon. Everyone collapsed to the ground and Ikkakumon de-digivolved back to Gomamon.

"How… many were… there?" Matt asked as he fought to keep his stomach inside himself.

"Too many." Izzy replied. "That must have been most of the Numemon on the planet…. I dread to think what could have gathered them in one place."

"I'm so glad you feel that way."

Everyone turned to the hoarse, croaking voice at the far end of the cavern. Matt instantly lost the contents of his stomach upon seeing the creature. TK, Mimi, and Joe followed suit when they saw several tiny creatures eat Matt's vomit.

In the far side was a towering hulk of flatulence, pestilence, and decay. The skin a multitude of disgusting greens and yellows. Open sore covered the creature from head to foot, its bloated stomach was open and organs spilled out in several places. Surrounding it were dozens of miniature versions of itself. Each one as putrid as the last. All of them eating either the diseased secretions from the decaying hulk, or the vomit that was steaming on the floor. In its hand it held an aged sword. It looked both fragile and horrendously powerful at the same time. The creature opened its mouth and licked its lips. A separate face was in its tongue. That too was covered in sores and leaked pus, phlegm, and other less identifiable substances. It lapped up the secretions of itself before it spoke.

"I'm so glad you could make it. I was afraid I'd miss you. I'm not in the best of health you know?" The creature burst out laughing, bile spurted out of its mouth as the hoarse, decrepit laugh echoed round the chamber, tempting to destroy all sanity.

The small creatures also laughed, a high cacophony of insanity that grated against the deep laugh of the giant hulk.

"Wh-what are you?" Joe asked as he stared in revulsion at the corpse like creature.

"I am a Great Unclean One. A Greater Daemon of Nurgle." The voice said in near perfect clarity compared to before. "I suppose you uncivilised fools do not know of the great Lord Nurgle. Still, at least you can spend eternity being tortured by Him after I destroy your mortal shells and send your souls to Nurgle."

"No way. We'll kill you…. Even if you do look like a corpse." Joe said, strangely optimistic. Several dozen pairs of eyes stared at him as everyone in the cavern wondered about his sanity.

The Great Unclean One burst out into a hoarse laugh. "Yes… I am a corpse I suppose. I like your sense of humour." The smaller creatures followed the laugh in their high-pitched voices.

"All twelve of your souls burn strongly, but that will not stop me from sending them to Nurgle. No. That will just make it all the more fun." It stopped laughing for a moment and drew its head back. It came forward again, a blob of black phlegm flying at them. Everyone scattered and watched as the floor dissolved for several metres until the last of the putrid stuff had evaporated.

"Agumon digivolve to… Greymon!"

"Gabumon digivolve to… Garurumon!"

"Tentomon digivolve to… Kabuterimon!"

"Palmon digivolve to… Togemon!"

"Gomamon digivolve to… Ikkakumon!"

"Biyomon digivolve to… Birdramon!"

"Patomon digivolve to… Angemon!"

The Great Unclean One stepped back in surprise. "Wh-what? How did you do that?" Surprise was evident in its voice. It motioned with its sword and all the small creatures swarmed towards the newly digivolved digimon.

"Meteor Wing!"Birdramon flew to the top of the cavern and unleashed her attack. Droves of the creatures were hit and exploded in a shower of putrid fluids. Wherever they landed the floor started to dissolve until the fluids were gone.

"Don't touch them." Izzy stated as he tried to get his Digimon Analyser to work on the Great Unclean One or its smaller counterparts without success.

"Try a Needle Spray!" Togemon shouted and took care of the rest of the small creatures in seconds. The Great Unclean One looked round and slowly backed away from them, sword trailing along the ground, hanging from a limp hand.

"Not so tough now, are you? Still going to kill us?" Tai asked as the digimon closed in on the abomination of nature.

"You think I'm finished?" The creature laughed loud again. "I haven't even started. Those Nurglings aren't really hard to send back home."

"Back home?"

"Yes. You didn't know. You cannot kill me. The most you could ever achieve was to destroy this body and banish my essence to the Immaterium for a while. But that won't happen." It lunged forward with supernatural speed and slashed at the caved-in rubble with its sword before retreating back to the far corner of the cavern.

Everyone watched as the rubble dissolved into a bubbling brown and green pool allowing the Numemon horde back in.

"Nova Blast!"

"Meteor Wing!"

"Needle Spray!"

"Harpoon Torpedo!"

"Electro Shocker!"

"Howling Blaster!"

"Hand of Fate!"

The attacks ploughed into and through the Numemon. Black clouds of data flew through the cavern roof and more Numemon took the place of their fallen comrades.

"You can't win. You're too badly outnumbered." The Great Unclean One laughed and lunged forward with his sword, smashing Birdramon down to the floor with the flat of the blade. It drew its head back for a moment before spewing forth steaming bile over the stunned digimon. Sora watched in horror as the putrid yellow substance hardened trapping Birdramon for the rest of the battle.

"Birdramon!" Sora screamed as she rushed to the hardened substance before Izzy, Joe, and Tai dragged her back.

"Are you mad? That stuff will probably kill you!" Joe shouted trying to hold her back.

"Greymon! Aim for the ceiling! Try and cave it in on those Numemon!" Tai shouted

"Nova Blast!" The ball of fire sailed through the air and smashed into the ceiling, rubble and dust drifted down causing the Numemon to look up. The ceiling held.

"Everyone! Hit it now!" Tai shouted out. Six attacks smashed into the roof above the Numemon. More dust drifted down, followed by rocks. There was a deafening crash and the Numemon were destroyed by thousands of tonnes of solid rock.

They turned back to the Great Unclean One as Kabuterimon was hot by another stream of bile and glued to the wall. A long echoing laugh erupted from the Greater Daemons mouth. "Two down. Five to go." It laboriously raised its sword and brought it crashing down where Garurumon had been moments before.

"Howling Blaster!" The attack aimed true for the creature's stomach. A sound of ripping innards could be heard and the attack passed through and crashed into the far wall, after making a gaping hole in the creature. It looked down at its stomach, bodily fluids poured out of the open wound on both sides dissolving the floor. It concentrated hard and the wound healed, leaving a small open sore where it had been.

The Great Unclean One vomited forth another steaming pile of bile. Aimed at the entire group. Everyone scattered as it sprayed the cavern, raising the floor by a few feet when it hardened.

"Needle Spray!"

"Nova Blast!"

"Harpoon Torpedo!"

"Howling Blaster!"

"Hand of Fate!"

The five attacks arced through the air towards the backing away Daemon. One by one they crashed into and through the thing creating holes and craters in the thing's body. It gave out a groan of pain and fell over backwards, sword falling from its grasp and landing blade buried in the ground.

"All right! We did it!" Tai shouted overjoyed.

"Tai. What about Birdramon and Kabuterimon." Sora said quietly, voice void of any emotion. Tai looked at the solid lumps on the floor and wall where the digimon had been buried alive. His face fell as he realised that they would probably not get them out.

A roar of anger diverted their attention. Staggering to its feet the Great Unclean One lent on its sword as it got up. "You think you can defeat me so easily? A Greater Daemon of Nurgle? We cannot be defeated. Decay is in every living thing! Our victory is inevitable!" It threw its sword into Ikkakumon, spearing him through the shoulder. He de-digivolved back to Gomamon and fell unconscious, blood pouring out of the wound.

"Your evil cannot be permitted anymore! Hand of Fate!" Angemon shot his attack towards the Daemon's head. It opened its eyes wide in surprise and threw itself to the floor avoiding the powerful blow by inches. Another volley of attacks blasted into its side as it lay on the floor, a geyser of pus erupting from each wound.

It clambered to its feet and staggered towards the group. "You are beginning to annoy me now." It said through clenched, black, teeth as it reached out and grabbed Angemon. "Your good cannot be permitted anymore!" It said in Angemon's voice shortly before it threw Angemon hard into the wall and quickly coated him with the entrapping bile. "You think that three of you can defeat me where seven have failed?"

"We'll destroy you if we die in the process!" Tai shouted.

"That's what friends do. And we will fight for our friends!" Matt shouted.

"Greymon digivolve to… MetalGreymon!"

"Garurumon digivolve to… WereGarurumon!"

"What? You still refuse to accept the inevitable? Just because you're bigger doesn't mean you're any harder to kill!" It lashed forward with its barbed tongue, smashing Togemon in the face, before slashing her with the sword, forcing her to de-digivolve back to Palmon, unconscious.

"Giga Blaster!" The dual missiles screamed forward towards the Greater Daemon, it deflected one into the wall with its sword and watched in horror as the other went towards its face. With a display of reflexes beguiled by its size it got its hand in the way. The missile crashed into it splattering the remnants of the arm across half the cavern. The creature looked at the stump that used to be its arm for a few seconds before screaming out in pain.

"Wolf Claw!" WereGarurumon leapt up to the creature's other arm and slashed hard and deep, forcing it to drop its sword. Its scream re-doubled in intensity, a horrifying sound in the closed cavern where echoes lasted for minutes at a time.

MetalGreymon rammed into the howling thing sending it sprawling backwards into the cavern walls. "Giga Blaster!" It fired at point blank range into the creature's hideous face. It erupted into a fountain of green and yellow, splattering the entire room forcing the remaining digimon back to Rookie level and knocking everything in the cavern unconscious.

While everyone remained blissfully unaware in the cave, no one heard a low rumbling sound. Dust started to trickle down from the ceiling at an alarming rate and echoing booms showed that the entire network of caves was collapsing.

PeterN: Wow! My longest piece to date. They may have destroyed one Greater Daemon, but things do not look good for the digidestined! How will they escape fate again? Please leave a review.


	10. Immaterium Part 10

PeterN: Arrghh!!! How are they going to get out of the cave? I still can't think how. Anyway, thanks for the reviews

Theo 'Blitz' Leung – Yep, a Great Unclean One has 6 wounds in the game at toughness 5. I said something to give the impression that it'll be back? I don't think Angemon would have toasted him faster than a vortex grenade; only one other thing I have heard of has the power of a black hole! And that is the Big Bang! I also don't think Angemon is that powerful, he had to delete himself and use power from seven digivices to take out Devimon. Now if Angemon does that when they're hunting for Greater Daemons….

{Death} – You really do like the fight scenes and nothing else ^_^

Space Dragon – I'm not sure who has the weirder sense of humour out of us two ^_^. Maybe it will come back, maybe it won't. You didn't expect a clear answer did you?

And now on with the story…

**Immaterium (Part 10)**

** **

Alarms rang out across the entire complex. Technicians rushed into the ICF control room. Red dots shone brightly on a screen. Each one representing an escaped Greater Daemon. One of the lights was blinking on and off. An indication of the Daemon's destruction.

"What hell spawn was that?" Bellowed Mr Patterson, the Greater Daemons should not have died this soon. He could smell a plot. And with Greater Daemons of Tzeentch in existence there was always a plot.

"Scanning now sir, nanosecond drop in the ICF re-circulation routine occurring soon…. Got it." The technician frantically typed away at a mind-boggling array of controls. The map faded out and a new screen appeared in its place. On it a picture of a Great Unclean One appeared.

"A Great Unclean One. The filth of their visage is nothing compared to the filth of their hearts." Mr Patterson said knowing that it was the first time most of these had seen a picture of a Greater Daemon. Those were the well-chosen words his boss had said back when he was a lowly technician. They had had a powerful effect on him since that day, he hoped it would also imbue these people with the determination and hatred necessary to destroy these creatures created in the pits of hell.

Shocked silence filled the room, everyone trying to tear their eyes away from the disgusting image before them. Beside it figures on the average Great Unclean One appeared. Beside those appeared figures on the most powerful, and least powerful one ever encountered. There was very little difference between them with the exception of their claimed age, and that could have been a lie.

Alarms went off again as the scanner displayed information on this newly discovered Greater Daemon of Nurgle. Every single figure was higher than the most powerful Great Unclean One ever encountered beforehand. Much higher. Mr Patterson subconsciously stood up as he stared at the figures.

"Twenty foot tall? The usual is only twelve to fifteen." He whispered as his brain mulled over the facts. He was vaguely aware of the silence that had descended upon the room, he had to make these recruits hate that thing. But there was nothing he could say. Those figures had winded him like no physical blow ever had.

He watched the screen; the blinking light didn't blink back on again. _It's gone._ He thought. _But what could possibly destroy that powerful a Greater Daemon. It's power must be nearly infinite. Only an astronomical event could produce the power to take that thing out._ He subconsciously reached inside his jacket pocket and felt the bulky grenade in it. _Ah. Sweet Vortex Grenade. You could do it. But the scanner would have picked it up if a Vortex Grenade had been used. _He removed his hand; there was no need to draw attention to the fact that he had possessed an illegal grenade for the past six thousand years.

Echoes roared through the extensive network of caves. Old caverns were disappearing and new ones appearing. Millennia old areas destroyed in seconds. Such was the aftermath of tragic battles. But loss of life was also one. The death of the vanquished, and sometimes the victor. Fourteen still forms lay inside the rapidly changing caves; seven human, and seven digimon. A green and black mist hung in the air; all that remained of the destroyed Greater Daemon. Killed by a war of attrition and destroyed by point blank range Giga Blasts. The previously trapped digimon were slowly released from their prisons of filth that started to dissolve with the death of the Daemon. Each one straining to break free, knowing that the cavern would be gone in a few minutes at the most.

Agonising seconds passed as molecule by molecule the gunk disappeared with excruciating slowness. Each second allowing more movement, but never enough to break free. Birdramon struggled to free herself from the confines of the liquefying substance. A crack appeared. Dust trickled down from the ceiling landing on Angemon's face. He looked up, an intricate and fragile pattern of destruction danced and whirled throughout the cavern's ceiling. Each passing moment spreading the pattern to more of the ceiling.

"We have to get out of here now. The cavern won't hold much longer." He called out to the others as he started to strain against the prison. A sound. A resounding crack echoed through the cavern. Kabuterimon was free. Angemon looked at him for a moment. "Get as many of them out of here as possible. We'll get the others."

Kabuterimon paused for a fraction of a moment. Long enough for small stones to begin to fall down around the cavern. He flew off and grabbed Izzy, Tai, and Agumon before flying off towards an exit. "I'll come back and help you!" He yelled as he flew off. "…if there's a cavern left to come back to." He added in a small nearly silent whisper.

The fusillade had begun around them. Stones were raining down like hail. Craters appeared in the now slimy prisons encasing Birdramon and Angemon. Simultaneously they broke free, a runny green residue still tenaciously clinging to them. Angemon flew down and grabbed TK and Palmon. He had neither the strength nor the time to pick the others up at the moment. He flew down the tunnel and glanced back to see Birdramon swooping after him with Sora, Matt, and Gabumon on her back.

_Not enough time. _He thought as he strained his wings to go faster, harder. _Hold on Gomamon, Joe, and Mimi. We'll save you still. _He hoped in vain that his thoughts would re-assure his still unconscious friends. The fusillade hardened, he could hear it pounding down throughout the cavern. Thunder rang out as age worn rocks plummeted to new depths. He prayed that none of the hit his friends.

Kabuterimon flew into the outside and threw Izzy, Tai, and Agumon to the ground. There wasn't the time to be gentle. This could mean the difference between life and death; Joe's, Gomamon's, and Mimi's. He plunged back into the tunnels. Wings aching from the exertion of such a fast flight. He pushed himself on. He could not give up. Would not give up. _I will save them!_ He shouted inside his head as he passed Angemon and Birdramon.

He flew into the cavern; boulders were raining down fast and furiously now. Each one punching a hole through the solid stone floor. He saw one falling towards Joe. Time slowed and nearly froze. He turned to face it. Aimed at it.

"Electro Shocker!" He screamed out. The attack seemed to take hour to build up, the rock fell closer as he unleashed the attack. Time returned to normal and acute vertigo forced him to the ground. All around him was dust. Where was Mimi? Where was Gomamon? And where was Joe? Was he crushed under a tonne of solid rock? He saw Mimi and Gomamon; he flew down and grabbed them. Where was Joe? Boulders plummeted down threatening to break through the ground itself. A glint of light in the dust. It had to be him. He flew down and grabbed the warm, fleshy object. A feeling of relief came over him. He had them all now. Now he just had to escape the fatal death trap they were in.

Patomon flew around trying to wake his friends up along with Biyomon. Both of them had used up too much energy in escaping before the entire hill collapsed. They could see the far side already levelling out as it crushed itself under millions of tonnes of rock. They looked back at the entrance. Where was Kabuterimon? He should be out of there by now. He had to be out of there. Time was running out fast. There were only seconds left before the entire thing collapsed.

Sound. Grating. Deafening. Explosive. Destructive. The shockwave passed by as the hill collapsed on itself stunning anything that was nearby. Patomon and Biyomon fell to the ground, ears ringing and protesting against the sound waves that tried to deafen them. Dust spewed up into the air, straight up into the air. The dust billowed out, a mushroom shaped cloud descending on the area of mass destruction and death.

PeterN: A short part again, but I have Chemistry coursework to start and complete by tomorrow… Eep! Please leave a review.


	11. Immaterium Part 11

PeterN: Thanks once again with the reviews.

Space Dragon – They might not be GREATER Greater Daemons, I think some clarification sections may be needed. Six thousand years old and you ask whether he's human? Then again, with that weird area you never know. Well here's your next fix ^_^.

Emma/Ems – Kabuterimon was inside the mountain from the point of view we have. Looks like I half killed Mimi again, I don't hate her really, despite the number of times she gets killed, half-killed, or knocked out. It looks like this fic is going to become slightly Mimato, whether I want it to be or not.

{Death} – No way am I putting Chaos Space Marines, Space Marines, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Orks, Imperial Guard, Sisters of Battle, Necrons, and Tyrannids in this. Next I suppose you'll want me to put the Chaos Gods in the battle.

Theo 'Blitz' Leung – You like Vortex Grenades too much I think ^_^, although glad you liked that line even if it does make you wonder what drugs Mr Patterson is on. I hate the way you get to watch the digimon episodes before me .. Glad you like my cliffhangers, especially if you normally hate them. And keep writing your fic, the more good fics the better!

**Immaterium (Part 11)**

** **

Mr Patterson walked towards the room again. Two visits to this office in such a short space of time. And both times bearing bad news. He knocked on the door and entered, instead of the usual gloom of the office a giant monitor wall lit the room. On it was all the information he had been going to tell to his boss.

"Mr Patterson." He said turning round to face him. "I expected you after I saw this. You're not yet experienced enough to understand these anomalies."

"What do you mean sir? Surely these show that there is a concentration of extremely powerful Greater Daemons in one dimension."

"No Mr Patterson. It doesn't. Daemons are not like us. Beings made of matter have the same strength and endurance regardless of what type of dimension they are in. Daemons, however, have different strengths, endurances, even sizes depending upon the type of dimension they are in. You were not alive at the time of the Great Xenophobic Wars, were you?"

"No sir. I have studied them in great detail though. Every candidate for this facility had to."

"I am not questioning your qualifications. There is much classified data on the Great Xenophobic Wars, data that even I don't have access to. Much of this data I know of because I took part in the Wars. How many dimensions do we have catalogued Mr Patterson?"

"A little over thirty trillion, do you want me to look up the exact number sir?"

"No, no. Now, how many of them are matter based? And how many ficton based?"

"Just the Immaterium is ficton based as far as I know. If there were another then the Daemons would be able to inhabit more dimensions freely. Every other dimension is matter based."

"Check the scans again. This dimension they are inhabiting is data based. A mixture of matter and ficton based. In these places Daemons become more powerful given time. And the longer they are left the more powerful they get, the same as in the Immaterium itself. We have to exterminate the other Daemons before their strength grows too large."

Patomon and Biyomon stared in awed silence at the lingering cloud of dust settling over everything in sight. Grit and rocks from the now destroyed hill rained down from the sky, wreaking vengeance on the creatures that had destroyed it. Oblivious to the pelting Patomon and Biyomon watched where the tunnel exit they had escape from used to be. Nothing could be seen there, dust storms blocked the sight like swirling tempests of anger.

As one they flew into the whirling winds to try and rescue their friends, if there was anything of them left to rescue.

"Kabuterimon! Joe! Mimi!" They shouted out over and over again as they rushed towards the seemingly endless pile of rubble. "Where are you?" They reached the site of destruction; there was no indication of any tunnels. There was no indication of the hill apart from memory. Slowly they moved rocks away, hoping they were uncovering the right places. Every second wasted was another second in which their friends could die.

A spot of colour. Out of place in the bleak stony terrain. Red. Blood red. "Biyomon! Over here!" Patomon shouted through the increasing roar of the wind. The hill wanted to claim some lives for its own destruction. The wind picked up, rocks swirling about in a dance of death.

There, on a large rock was a trail of blood coming from a hand. They struggled to lift the rock. It was too firmly stuck, the wind now forcing it down. "We can't move it! What do we do?" Patomon screamed above the rage of the tempest.

"Attack it! Spiral Twister!" The attack born out of pure desperation smashed into the rock, doing little more than denting it.

"Boom Bubble!" The bubble hit the bottom of the rock dislodging stones and dust, stones rolled down taking larger rocks in their path along as well. The cascade of rocks collapsed the wall opening up a small tunnel still surviving in the rubble.

"In here…." A voice drifted out of it, distorted beyond recognition by the lingering echo.

"Motimon! Gomamon! You're safe!" Biyomon shouted as she saw them safe in the small section of surviving tunnel. "Where are Joe and Mimi?" She looked up to follow their gazes. Lodged against the wall they were jammed unconscious, Joe with one side of his body covered by rocks and Mimi with her legs trapped. Both were at awkward angles and probably passed out from pain rather than damage.

Together they set about the arduous task of freeing the two trapped humans. Slowly they freed them, surprised to find that the only damage was a gash along Joe's arm where a jagged rock had fallen into it. The tempest had died down to a calm breeze outside, although it was still freezing cold and dark from the huge quantities of dust and rocks blocking the sun. They dragged Mimi and Joe back to where their friends were and collapsed into sleep, thoroughly exhausted from the battle and rescuing their friends.

Deep within the rubble of the destroyed hill a phosphorescent green and yellow gas slowly filtered through the debris field. It floated up into the atmosphere, invisible inside the dust clouds that blocked out light.

A brilliant flash of pure energy would have been seen if anyone had been awake and a scream of pain emanated from the gas. There were more blinding flashes and screams of pain as the gas dissipated, slowly stopping as the gas disappeared completely.

Izzy shot up as pain cruised through his body. He tried to embrace the painless comfort of slumber, but failed as every part of his body screamed in protest at the slightest movement of his limbs. His scream of pain joined with six others in a cacophony of sadism as he woke the others up. All the humans feeling the same pain as Izzy, they quickly stayed still and the pain eased enough for them to breathe again.

"Wh-what happened?" Tai asked, the last thing he remembered was an explosion of putrid greens and yellows, followed by the bliss of oblivion.

"We won." Patomon said, flying over to TK. "When MetalGreymon blasted that blob it exploded and knocked you all out. Me, Birdramon, and Kabuterimon were fine. Probably that gunk protected us somehow."

Matt stood up as he realised that the pain had disappeared suddenly, he shook his head to clear the fog out his mind. Then he saw what used to be the hill and stared at it. The others followed his gaze, ten surprised looks staring at the largest pile of rubble they had ever seen. "We did that?" Matt asked slowly.

"Looks like it." Joe said. "I don't know how it didn't kill us, I don't remember leaving the cave."

"We got you out." Biyomon said. "Kabuterimon, Angemon, me, and Gomamon."

"Thanks guys, don't know what would have happened if you hadn't have helped." Matt said, the others said similar things, surprised how well their luck was holding out.

A powerful being watched them, listened to their conversation, listened to their thoughts. "It will not hold out much longer." It said to itself in its sweet melodic voice. "Not now that I want to have some fun with you, my little toys."

PeterN: Well, not hard to guess who's watching them if you know Warhammer 40,000. Please leave a review.


	12. Immaterium Part 12

PeterN: Thanks for the reviews, and Space Dragon is right, these sections are too small. I'll post in larger chunks now, though maybe not everyday as I get little time for writing this.

Space Dragon – I know the Keeper Of Secrets would have a field day with it, I do not, however, want to turn this into a lemon. As much as I can do will get done though. And here's your next fix….

{Death} – I'm very glad you were "just kidding".

Emma/Ems – What did I do to Mimi that time? Apart from burying her under a collapsed hill… oh. I had guessed that Mimato was your favourite couple, as I said before it's mainly thanks to reading Bliss' Gemini Warriors series shortly before writing part one that turned this is a slight Mimato. I highly recommend that people read all the Digimon stuff by Bliss, I can't comment on the Harry Potter stuff as I haven't read the books.

Theo 'Blitz' Leung – Thanks for the non-witty review ^_^.

Now on with a longer story section…

**Immaterium (Part 12)**

** **

_So this is where it was defeated._ The creature thought as it stood by Myotismon's now defunct castle. _A single attack destroyed it last time, but it might still serve some use as a distraction. I just have to make sure its revenge is focused on my target._ It slowly walked away in a seemingly random direction, deep in thought. _What are those things the humans wear? How do they let those creatures get bigger? More importantly, how did they break that human girl out of servitude? And how did they defeat that disgusting follower of Nurgle. He may be stupid and slow, but he can take a lot of punishment before he goes down. I want to know. There has to be a way of finding out. There is a way of finding out anything; one just has to know where to look._

It stopped for a fraction of a second, standing up tall and proud, an air of majesty displayed in its posture. It purposely turned around and headed off in a new direction, its long delicate strides eating the ground up. _And I know just where to find out what I want to know…_.

Izzy looked up at the rising sun, soon it would be time for them to set off on their journey to find the next Daemon. He looked back at the rest of the group; sleeping. Why was he surprised? He was on guard duty, not them. He turned back to his laptop, a map of the Digiworld was shown on it, and one red dot was worrying him. It kept blinking in and out of existence every now and then, as though it was no longer there. And every time it blinked out it re-appeared closer to them.

It blinked out and re-appeared twenty kilometres closer to them. _That's it. We're not hunting it anymore. It's hunting us!_ Izzy thought as he ran towards the group. "Get up." He called out and heard a series of quiet groans, followed by the usual snoring. "Get up now!" He shouted at the top of his voice.

Slowly they all got up, glaring at Izzy for the early wake up call. "Why so early?" Mimi asked groggily from sleep. "I need my beauty sleep."

"You'll be sleeping if you don't get up soon. Permanently! One of those Greater Daemons is hunting us. It's going to arrive in less than ten minutes at its current velocity."

"What? Why didn't you wake us earlier?" Joe shouted as he and everyone else quickly got up and subconsciously scanned the horizon. "Where's it coming from? I don't see it."

"It's too far away Joe. It's coming from…" Izzy paused to check his laptop. "…It's vanished?" He said in disbelief. _How does it do that? It breaks every law of physics relating to movement!_

"Quite easily my un-knowledgeable friend." A sweet voice said from behind them. Everyone whirled round; Joe and Matt a strange look in their eyes. Izzy glared at it. _Un-knowledgeable? I bet I know more than it does._

"Very unlikely little orphan." The voice continued on, a cruel fanged smile appearing on its lips at the sight of the confused faces. "Yes, I can read your thoughts. I know every last secret all of you have. That is also why I know that you are no threat." It idly cleaned its sword on its leg, drawing sweet smelling blood for a fraction of a second before the wound sealed up again, no mark of it ever having been there remaining.

"We'll destroy you like we destroyed the other thing." Tai shouted, angered at the thing's arrogance, but drawn to it like a moth to a flame none the less.

"And what do I have to fear from a boy who is too scared to try and rescue his friend?" It snarled in a frightening sweet voice. Tai's heart sunk into the pit of his stomach under the question. He slowly collapsed to the ground, small trails of tears trickling down his face and splashing the grass below him. "Go on, please tell me?" The boy curled up into a ball, wall after wall of guilt and cowardice smashing into him like nothing had ever done before.

The Daemon smiled as it looked down upon the pitiful boy. It was so much fun to torture living things. Its eyes glazed over as it thought back into the past. _Such fun I had back then. If only there could be another war like that. Humanity divided between Chaos and their Emperor. Planet after planet I raided with like-minded humans and daemons. Ah. The fun I had back then. Maybe I can make these ones last a little before I break them._ It sighed a little. _Why do I always break my toys? I try not to, but the excitement is too much._

It smiled and returned to the present, eyes focused on the curled up human. It read through their minds; Tai. That was his name. Who to pick on next? The more he could turn into blubbering idiots before they snapped to their senses and attacked the more fun it would be. It eyed them all, eyes resting on the familiar girl in pink again; Mimi. She noticed its gaze on her and stepped behind the nearest person. It smiled as she tried to hide behind someone smaller than she was.

It quickly read through her mind, trying to find something to torment her with. It couldn't find anything apart from the horror of not being able to choose her own actions when she had been under its control. _A pity those little trinkets have closed that avenue of fun off from me for the moment. She was fun to have as a slave, especially as she knew what she was doing but couldn't help it anyway._ It stared at the small trinket on TK's neck. _That was the one that did it. If I can destroy that I might be able to have even more fun._

_Why aren't we attacking?_ Izzy thought. _Logically we should be trying to kill that thing. But we aren't._ He started to open his mouth but was cut off before he uttered a single syllable.

"And you." It said pointed a slender clawed arm at Izzy as it licked its lips. "You're just an orphan. Hated so much by your parents that they abandoned you. How can you threaten me?"

Izzy felt a lump in his throat, his voice refused to come out and his brain refused to think. In a desperate attempt to shut out the emotional pain he stopped thinking, his eyes glazed over in a far off look. The look he usually adopted when deep in thought. Mimi brushed by him trying to avoid the thing's stare again.

Izzy fell, unmoving to the ground. Not making the slightest sound when he landed. Mimi jumped back, barely repressing a scream of surprise and fright. The sweet laugh filled the air again, taking the edge off of the shock. Mimi stared at the two on the floor then back at the lovely smile on the thing's face.

_It's taking us out one by one._ She thought as realisation dawned on her. "Come on, we have to fight it!" Slowly slightly gazed looks fell from their eyes and were rapidly replaced with looks of anger and defiance. The Greater Daemon stopped laughing or smiling, now staring at Mimi with surprise. _You have a strong soul, my slave._ It thought before it assumed a fighting stance.

"Gabumon digivolve to… Garurumon!"

"Biyomon digivolve to… Birdramon!"

"Gomamon digivolve to… Ikkakumon!"

"Palmon digivolve to… Togemon!"

"Patomon digivolve to… Angemon!"

They looked back for a moment at Agumon and Motimon, looks of helplessness on their faces. It was all the time the Greater Daemon needed. It shot forward and grabbed Mimi in one of its powerful claws. "We just can't stay away from each other." It whispered in Mimi's ear sending a shiver down her spine. She screamed in terror and struggled hopelessly against the enormous strength of the Greater Daemon.

It looked at the seven creatures, and four humans that were standing in front of it. Every one of them was ready to attack it without a moment's notice_. How easy it is to anger these ones. They shall be so much fun to play with._ It thought as it altered its grip on Mimi, using her as a shield. "I would suggest you don't attack." Its sweet voice rang out above Mimi's terrified screams. "It would be such a pity if you killed such a beautiful toy as this."

It watched with pleasure as all of them slightly relaxed their guard. _They won't attack. They wouldn't dare harm their friend._ It shuddered slightly as it thought the word; friends were just a nuisance if the friendship was real. It stroked Mimi's hair with one of its slender clawed hands. Felt the knot of fear that built up in her stomach. Saw the looks of revulsion in most of their eyes.

It looked beyond the physical, into the immaterial. It saw her soulflame burning brightly, a quick psychic jab, invisible to all nearby, sent her into a relaxed state, her eyes still open, and her ears still hearing, but just enough damage to stop her responding. It watched as her head lolled and her limbs fell limp, smiled at the looks of fear in its opponents' faces.

"She's alive." It said simply. "As long as you don't attack." It walked slowly backwards before raising its sword high into the air, a bolt of pale beige lightning struck it; Daemon, Mimi, and Togemon disappearing from sight in a silent explosion of light.

The Greater Daemon looked around at its surroundings as it materialised with Mimi in its arms. Brightly coloured blocks of a soft looking material were piled up high here and there in the place, and surrounding it were hundreds of small cradles and eggs. It read some more thoughts from the comatose Mimi. _Primary Village._ It thought and pondered what to do here. _Hundreds of little lives born here and nowhere else. If I can turn this place into a temple to Slaanesh this planet would become a slave to Slaanesh in a single generation._

Slowly it realised there was a third being with them. The giant cactus-like creature had for some reason been brought along for the ride. It snarled at it and threw Mimi to the floor behind it, all thoughts focused on the fight and how it had gotten there. It ploughed its sword through the already stunned cactus and watched as it reverted back unconscious to its smaller form. It lifted the small thing up on the end of its sword, surprised that it had fallen so easily.

It flipped the thing from its sword, hearing a sickening crunch as it landed. The Daemon laughed softly, its gentle but sadistic tones calming down the hundreds of small creatures in the cradles around it. It turned round to face the sprawled form of Mimi. _Time to find out exactly what secrets you hold._ It thought as it concentrated on her memories.

It read them as humans read a book or watch television. Each individual memory playing itself out at the will of the Daemon. It loved doing this; there were few things as much fun for it. It loved the way the human re-lived every memory it viewed as though it was the first time it went through it. Sanity stretched to the brink as memories were viewed out of chronological order, the human mind not being able to cope with the stress.

It went through every memory, often repeating the most amusing ones it found. Undoubtedly the ones that disturbed Mimi the most. Decades of memories played by to her, each passing moment throwing another weight on the precarious bridge between sanity and insanity.

It watched Mimi twitch every time the memories played, savoured the way her limbs would spasm during the more horrible ones. A cruel smile spread across its face as it played the most disturbing memories over and over. Each time the reaction it forced upon Mimi worsened.

Finally it stopped, having both found out all it wanted to know and having had enough fun that it was becoming repetitive. It reached out and pulled her crest and tag off of her, slowly it slid it round its own neck. _Let's see how well your digimon friend can fight without the power this thing provides her with._ It let go of the small device and felt power flood into itself. _This truly is a remarkable thing. Nothing will be able to stop me now._

It glared around at its surroundings, not noticing that it had grown at least two feet taller when it had put the crest on. It slashed at the building blocks sending them tumbling to the ground, disappearing under a flurry of slashes from its claws and its sword. Hundred of tiny digimon bawled as the bright things they liked got destroyed.

"Quiet you miserable things!" It shouted as it slashed out at them, cutting down dozens into a black cloud of data in a momentary fit of rage spurred on by the extra power from the crest.

"What are you doing?" A furious red digimon smashed into the Greater Daemon, knocking it over with the force of his charge. The Greater Daemon looked up at the small digimon. Anger clouding its vision for a moment, wildly slashing with all of its arms and its sword it crashed towards the digimon, missing completely and disintegrating another pile of blocks instead.

"Super Thunder Strike!" The attack crashed into the Greater Daemon's back, doing no damage at all. It turned on the miniscule red thing and picked it up in its claws.

"Your time is at an end… Elecmon." It smashed the small digimon into egg after egg, mangled remains of half formed digimon stuck to his face as he stared in horror. Finally the Greater Daemon bored of the game and decapitated it in a swift cut, steaming blood seeped out to mar the ground for a few moments before the dead digimon was deleted in a cloud of black data.

PeterN: Well, I've done it again. Mimi has yet again been captured by the Greater Daemon of Slaanesh. Ack… this is heading towards a hentai scene if I write the Greater Daemon in character properly. Sorry Emma/Ems, I know how much you like Mimi, but the Greater Daemon appears to like her even more…. Ok, I'm shutting up before this does turn hentai. Please leave a review.


	13. Immaterium Part 13

PeterN: NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! They stopped showing Digimon on TV here .. Thanks once again for the reviews.

**{Death}** – Just a little note, I am not on the side of the Imperium. Send Yarrick to warn them? He doesn't even know. That mysterious place with the ICF is not human run, and to be honest I don't think any assassin or Imperial hero would survive long.

**Theo 'Blitz' Leung** – Which one do you mean? Elecmon's death or that Primary Village could become a Slaanesh temple? I don't think Matt would wield a force weapon very well; he hasn't exactly trained in the use of swords, etc….

**Space Dragon** – Um… I'm not quite sure what "hand that daemon some Prozac" means. Not sure if you mean that to avoid the hentai or to heighten the Daemon's pleasure during it. The others will probably try and rescue Mimi… again.

**Pikachumaniac **– A fan of Elecmon I assume. Don't worry, I only killed Elecmon off, its not like he got tortured… apart from having his head used to break the eggs he tends and cares for that is.

**Immaterium (Part 13)**

** **

Matt blinked dumbly at the spot where the Greater Daemon had been. One second it had been there. The next it was gone, along with Mimi and Togemon. He tried to pry his eyes off of the slightly scorched spot where it had last stood. He saw it stroking Mimi's hair and physically shuddered in revulsion as he finally managed to move his eyes. Joe was staring in a similar way, eyes fixated on the scorch mark on the ground as though it held the answers to life. He looked back at TK; his little brother stared back at him, hope burning brightly in his eyes. There was Sora, back to the group, muttering something incomprehensible under her breath. Then there was Tai and Izzy, both on the floor. Izzy lying straight and rigid, Tai curled into a ball and weeping still.

Matt nudged them with his foot, causing a bleary-eyed Tai to slowly get up. The misery of the entire group etched hard onto his face. He rubbed at his eyes, trying to recover some of his dignity that lay shattered around them. He looked slowly at the scorch mark, bloodshot eyes asking the unspoken question. Matt nodded slowly, watching as Tai turned away again. The guilt of leaving yet another friend to the mercy of their enemies ploughing into him like a bulldozer.

Matt kicked Izzy again after he didn't move. Still no movement from the rigid lump of flesh. Matt kicked him hard in the stomach, causing Izzy to double up with pain, awareness flooding back as the blow registered a few seconds later. He stumbled to his feet, glaring at Matt. He saw the look in Matt's eyes and turned away. There was no need to add more pain to his burden, or any of their burdens. He noticed the scorch mark, guessed what happened but didn't ask. There was enough pain already, no need for someone to reiterate it.

They stood in silence, each one nursing their own personal wound, fear, or doubt. Joe stared blankly into the distance, eyes and ears not registering anything as his mind played the last minute or so when the Daemon was there over and over again. Each time he saw the scene the Greater Daemon filled him with more and more revulsion as it stroked Mimi's soft brown hair. Fear gradually built up replacing the revulsion. _What will that thing do to Mimi?_

Sora stared down at her feet mumbling under her breath as she recalled the disastrous few seconds that turned a probable victory into total defeat. _Why didn't we attack sooner? We should have obliterated that thing at the first chance before it grabbed Mimi._

Izzy stood by the scorch mark on the ground. Closer up it looked nothing like a scorch mark, it was a definite pattern; a sphere with a crescent moon attached to it by a thin line leading away from the sphere. Crossing the line was another, larger, crescent moon, facing the opposite direction to the other and encircling half of the sphere. He stared at it, the image stinging his eyes with twisting images of deranged futures and pasts. He tore his eyes away from the powerfully scorched image, eyes bloodshot from the few seconds he had stared at it.

Tai stood facing away from the group trying desperately to recover some sense of self-control. His red eyes still weeping no matter how much he tried to stay calm. Thoughts kept drifting back to when Datamon captured Sora, and when he was too much of a coward to even move. _It's true. I really am a coward. What use am I to them? All I do is nearly get them killed._

Matt gazed restlessly at the horizon; somehow he was sure Mimi was in that direction, far away, but still in that direction. His mind drifted back to Mimi's capture quicker than he could stop his thoughts from wondering. He saw the thing stroking her hair again and the fanged smile it had on its face as it did it. _Don't worry Mimi, we'll get you back._

TK glanced at the group standing around, mourning their loses already. He looked at the digimon; their looks were the same as the human they were paired with. He saw the sorrow in their eyes, the defeat. _We'll never win if we don't think we can win._ He glanced back at Angemon and saw the same determined look in his eyes that TK was sure his own eyes held.

"We have to leave now." Angemon said in his relatively calm voice. "If we do not find Mimi and Togemon soon there is no telling what that thing will do to them." Everyone stared at him as he spoke, unreadable looks on their eyes.

"That thing will kill us." Joe said flatly. "It's probably already killed Mimi and Togemon. We don't even know where to look."

Izzy coughed slightly to get their attention. "Not quite Joe. We do know where to look, this program Gennai put on here tracks the Greater Daemons. All I have to do is scroll around the map until I find it." He turned his attention to his laptop that he'd been waving around while talking. A few seconds of furious key tapping later he looked up. "Found it. It's at… Primary Village." Izzy slowed as he realised where it was, probably one of the worst places it could have ended up in.

Joe looked sceptically at him again. "And just how are we supposed to get there?"

Matt glared at Joe. "Anyone would think that you didn't want to save Mimi. Or maybe you're in league with that thing! Is that it?" He shouted at Joe anger smashing the calm of sadness to oblivion.

Sora stepped in-between the two, remembering the last fight they had when they'd been near the Daemon. "Shut up you two! The Daemon already managed to get you two to nearly kill each other over Mimi once. We do not need you two trying to kill each other again. It's the Daemon who's to blame for this, not any of us."

"Sora's right." Tai said stepping next to her. "Izzy do you remember when we fought Etemon you did something with the laptop that teleported us to Etemon's pyramid?"

"Yes. Of course! I could use that to take us to Primary Village. We might just get there in time. I'll start on it now." Izzy let out in a fast stream of words as his hands flew across the keyboard faster than the others could follow.

The Greater Daemon watched with satisfaction as Lilymon started to demolish Primary Village. Her usual smile replaced with a neutral expression, and half closed eyes. It watched as she shot an energy beam at yet more of the bright building blocks, exploding them into smaller chunks that rained down on Primary Village below. It listened to the wails of the baby digimon as the blocks crashed down around and upon them, crushing eggs here and there with sickening crunches that made all the baby digimon weep. The Greater Daemon laughed loudly in its melodic tone as the baby digimon cowered in their cradles, too weak and too scared to do anything but watch on helplessly as random eggs were destroyed. It savoured the sounds of wailing, and whimpering, and destroyed life as one would savour a piece of fine music.

It looked at Mimi, the same glazed over expression on her face as was on Lilymon's. As the blocks were destroyed she picked up the remains and moved them to an area that the two had cleared earlier. Still a small area at the moment, it would be where the altar to Slaanesh would be built. It thought back to their efficiency at clearing the area, it had expected them to move the eggs without harming them, but instead Lilymon shot energy beams at them as fast as she could while Mimi crushed them under her boots or kicked them out of the way. _It will be fun to replay that memory inside of them._ It thought as it smirked, fangs just showing through its beautiful smile. _Then again, once they have had time to finish this they will willingly embrace Slaanesh._

It watched as more baby digimon were killed by the girl, crushed by the weight of the blocks and cradles as she used their cradles as part of the altar. It listened to their final screams of death and watched the small black cloud of deleted data float up as they died. For the first time it noticed that the black cloud was hanging around Primary Village, getting denser and denser as more digimon were killed in the name of Slaanesh.

"Done it." Izzy said as he stopped typing and a portal appeared a few metres ahead of them. "I've got it to take us about half a kilometre from Primary Village so we get some chance to see what's going on before the fight starts." He looked round, gaze falling on Agumon and Motimon. "You two had better digivolve to Champion now. That thing is fast enough to kill you before you have a chance to digivolve while at those levels." He waited long enough to see them nod before turning to the portal and going through it. He heard the digivolution as he stepped through the portal, shortly followed by everyone else.

All of them stared in shock at the sight they saw; above Primary Village was a giant black cloud of buzzing data. "Impossible." Izzy said as he stared at it, mouth slightly open. "The amount of digimon it would take to produce that much data is…" He broke off as he realised that Primary Village had the highest concentration of digimon anywhere in Digiworld.

"It's killed them all." Joe said in shock and disbelief as he watched the omnipresent black cloud of angry data swarm as close to Primary Village as it could get, something was blocking it though at about twenty metres from the ground.

"All of those poor defenceless baby digimon." Sora whispered as she stared at the cloud as well. Too shocked to do anything else, and too scared to like the silence that would envelop them if they didn't speak.

Tai marched towards Primary Village, courage now etched on his face instead of the cowardice that had been there before. The others followed him, each as determined as the last to save Mimi and destroy the evil creature that had captured her and tried to use her as a living shield. He got close enough to see what was happening and gasped in horror; Lillymon was demolishing Primary Village along with Mimi while the Greater Daemon stood by and laughed. He silently passed his miniature telescope to the others so they could see what was happening.

"Looks like we have to fight against Lillymon as well." Izzy said, his remark earning him glares from most of them. "She wouldn't do that. The Daemon must be controlling her somehow. We have to knock her unconscious, that freed Mimi when she was under its spell."

"Guys, I don't see Mimi's tag or crest." Matt said as he looked through the telescope at Mimi. He winced as she crushed an egg that was in her path. He spun the telescope round to look at Lillymon and then the Daemon. He stopped for a moment then looked again. "That thing. It's wearing Mimi's crest and tag." Matt hissed as he had the telescope grabbed off of him by Tai.

"Lillymon's at Ultimate. You'll have to digivolve again to stand a chance of beating the both of them at once." Tai said as he peered through the telescope. "Come on, if we time this right we can hit them before they realise we're here!"

"Greymon digivolve to… MetalGreymon!"

"Garurumon digivolve to… WereGarurumon!"

"Birdramon digivolve to… Garudamon!"

"Kabuterimon digivolve to… MegaKabuterimon!"

"Ikkakumon digivolve to… Zudomon!"

"Giga Blaster!"

"Wolf Claw!"

"Wing Blade!"

"Horn Buster!"

"Vulcan's Hammer!"

"Hand of Fate!"

PeterN: Well, its getting late and you will want me to be in a happier mood when I write the battle, Digimon being cancelled isn't a good thing to happen five minutes before you start writing…. Anyway, please leave a review.


	14. Immaterium Part 14

PeterN: Hmm… Digimon just came out second most popular in the CITV poll, yet they replaced it with the eight most popular. Thanks for the reviews.

**Theo 'Blitz' Leung** – Yep, sadism is one of the specialties of Slaanesh. You like Vortex Grenades WAY too much.

**Space Dragon** – Not sure why it was cancelled, either they don't have the episodes yet or it isn't popular enough. Six Digimon Vs Lilymon and a Keeper of Secrets, could be an interesting battle. Glad the Prozac wasn't to heighten the Daemon's pleasure.

**Emma/Ems **– It's because people despise cliffhangers that I try to end on them…. Might keep some readers who want to know what happens.

**Pikachumaniac** – Um…. The story was never supposed to be Mimato, Mimoe, Taiora, etc…. Yeah, poor Elecmon and baby digimon, some of them are still alive though. Gomamon evolves into Zudomon… I think… I hope.

**Immaterium (Part 14)**

** **

The Greater Daemon turned round as he heard the attacks called out. For a brief second it saw the massed energy fly directly towards Lillymon and two small missiles heading towards itself. It dived to the floor and grabbed its sword off the ground where it had discarded it when enslaving the human and the digimon to its will.

_Not enough time._ It thought as it braced itself for the incoming missile. _I never should have turned my back on them. That's probably killed you now._ It waited for the pain, it didn't come. It turned round; the missiles were travelling sluggishly through the ever-thickening cloud of black that surrounded Primary Village like a plague of death. It noticed the energy beams heading for Lillymon were also slowed down in the same way, crawling through at snail's pace. It shouted a mental command to Lillymon; building the temple could wait, destroying these potentially dangerous foes could not.

The attacks chugged through the black cloud; much to the dismay of the digidestined; all hopes of a surprise attack were now destroyed. They covered their eyes as the attacks erupted one by one, each leaving a hole in the black cloud that slowly started to close before their eyes. The multi-coloured ripples spread through the black cloud of data, a visual display through nine axes of space and time, the likes of which rarely seen before.

It held its sword ready in a defensive stance as it waited for the digidestined to attack. Lillymon flew to above the Greater Daemon, staying just below the cloud of data, flower cannon aimed at her friends The creature looked at its sword once more, then at the group of digimon outside the cloud; none of them were moving closer. It stared at its sword and concentrated. Slowly it melted into a small super-heated blob, steam visible in the air around it. The Greater Daemon concentrated again and the blob expanded out, taking on the shape of a large, mutated, guitar.

It played a few notes to warm up_. It's been way too long since I've played you my beautiful Doom Siren._ It thought as it quietly played a few melodies to get the hang of the thing again. "Practice time's over! Now for the first number in my musical repertoire is this!" It shouted out so the digidestined could hear as it started strumming the weird looking guitar. A flash of movement faster than the eye could follow and rock music blared out from the guitar. Ripples and distortions could be seen in the black cloud and the Greater Daemon watched while singing along to its own masterpiece.

Ripples in the air could be seen as the notes increased in intensity and volume, the black cloud started to pulsate with the almost invisible energy of the guitar. The ripples increased in power, and giant ripples could be seen bouncing throughout everything inside the black cloud. Building blocks exploded in a fearsome display of power as they were destroyed at the molecular level. Baby digimon started to cry and wail in pain, their own screams adding to the unholy cacophony of evil that resounded around.

In the midst of the pain the Greater Daemon stood there, playing frantically and signing as fast as it could, barely remembering the battle anymore. Lillymon floated above him, flower cannon still aimed directly at her friends, showing no sign of the music hurting her as baby digimon started to explode in a shower of blood near where Mimi was calmly going about building the altar. She was also immune to the effects of the music, blood now coating her as the digimon and eggs exploded as she tried to incorporate them into the altar.

The Greater Daemon paused for a moment, breathing in a deep breath before letting out another burst of music with re-doubled intensity and speed. Cracks appeared in the black cloud and the pulsating increased. The Greater Daemon played one final bass riff and watched with satisfaction as the cloud shattered into a billion times a billion pieces of death flying outwards.

"Get down!" Joe yelled as they all threw themselves flat to the ground. The remnants of the cloud sped over them, exploding the instant they touched anything. Joe looked up and saw the devastation the cloud had caused. Every tree in sight was blown in half, data could be seen drifting up where it had killed a digimon, and the ground was shaking as it tried to cope with the sudden change in its mass.

Waves smashed through the ground sending everything nearby soaring through the air. Joe closed his eyes tight as he felt himself lurched into the air along with everything else. Garudamon, Angemon, and Lillymon were the only three who remained for the moment.

"Wing Blade!"

"Hand of Fate!"

The two attacks screamed out at Lillymon who easily dodged the attacks, flying forward and taking the battle to them. _What am I doing?_ She thought s she tried to stop herself. _They're my friends. Why am I attacking them? I don't want to do this._

"Flower Cannon!"

The aim was true despite her conscience's best effort to make the attack miss. Garudamon stopped trying to fly and dropped straight down for a few metres, attack passing safely over her head and smashing into the ground below. Garudamon flew up and smashed into Lillymon, her thin frame went spinning through the air as she tried to fight the nauseous feeling. She felt the heat of an attack that barely missed shortly before she could regain her balance. Glazed over eyes stared at Garudamon as she aimed at her friend. There would be no way to miss at such a close range. Time slowed for Lillymon as she fought an inner battle to regain control of herself.

Palmon stared around in shock, there was nothing to see, everything was hidden by that pitch-black lack of light that pervaded everything she could sense. "Hello?" She called out, realisation that she could control her own body sinking in a few seconds later. The light started to increase and she could see her way around. A few metres to her right she saw herself, Garudamon, and Angemon. She was in her Ultimate stage and was powering up a flower cannon at near point-blank range.

"You have to overcome the Greater Daemon." A voice floated out of the semi-darkness.

"Who are you?" Palmon asked it back, not looking forward to the reply.

"I am your conscience, and this place is your mind before you ask as I know you will. You have to overcome the Greater Daemon, if you do not it shall destroy your friends and enslave you forever. I for one do not want that to happen."

"How do I defeat it?"

"I do not know. Only you can know that."

"It is right." A different voice came out of the darkness, anger and hatred obvious in its tones. "You won't be able to defeat me here though. Not if you couldn't defeat me in the real world." The Greater Daemon stepped forward, its form, both beautiful and hideous at the same time, revealing itself in the slowly increasing brightness.

It suddenly charged forward, sword raised and ready to slice Palmon in half. The surroundings instantly flooded into light, causing both Daemon and Palmon to cover their eyes. Palmon looked round; they were in a desert, a tall tower climbed up to the cloudless sky in the distance, something about it called to her and she set off towards it as fast as she could while the Greater Daemon still covered its eyes.

"You can run, but you can't hide…" It called out as it stood back and watched Palmon sprint as fast as she could towards the horizon. It quickly exchanged its sword for a Doom Siren and began playing a throbbing riff up and down the scale. Explosions littered the ground to Palmon's left as the sound waves smashed into the desert sending up plumes of choking sand. The Greater Daemon paused for a moment to peer through the obscuring sand clouds. It sighed and raised the Doom Siren high into the air, a creamy coloured wave of energy smashing into the ground at its hooves as it lowered it.

Palmon ran forward still, the explosions had stopped but this heat would stop her before she ever reached the tower. She felt a wave through the surface of the desert and paused for a moment to steady herself. Sand smashed into her with the force of a truck as the ground exploded to her right. For what seemed an eternity she endured the chaffing, eroding pain of the sand storm as she flew through the air, ending up in a crumpled pile far from the original explosion.

The Greater Daemon looked at the crumpled form in the distance with satisfaction and set off at a leisurely jog towards the incapacitated Palmon. It played a few more notes on the Doom Siren, sending more plumes of sand up from the ground near Palmon.

Palmon slowly got to her feet, body aching with pain, and vision clouded from the sand. She made out the form of the Greater Daemon rapidly approaching and started to stumble away from it. She tripped. Sand blasted into her as another storm started. She struggled to her feet. There was the Greater Daemon, towering above her.

The Greater Daemon looked down at the small figure of Palmon. It slowly raised its sword, confident that she could not win. It watched Palmon whimper pathetically as she tried to cringe away from the sword. It brought the sword down. One swift, beautiful arc of death.

The sand turned red. Blood seeped out of the two halves of the corpse. Internal organs, liquefied from the powerful blow splashed out onto the sand. A sight beautiful in its contrasting colours to the Greater Daemon. It laughed and nudged the two parts of the corpse with its hooves. The limbs twitched. The final bit of life surrendered to the atmosphere as a grey semi-liquid slurped its way out of Palmon's destroyed body. 

The liquids slowly seeped through the sand and a thunderous noise could be heard in the distance. The Greater Daemon turned to face the tower. A bolt of lightning smashed into it, masonry smashing into the floor as the lightning destroyed it. Again and again. Lightning struck the tower with a vengeance. The sound increased and one final bolt of creamy coloured lightning erupted from the desert. It smashed through the tower, diffusing out of every window and hole. The Greater Daemon covered its eyes as the light threatened to blind it. It looked again when the light subsided. All that remained was a crater.

"There goes your last bastion of self-control, my sweet slave."

"Flower Cannon!"

The attack smashed into Garudamon, the beam tearing at the very essence of life that made her up. Garudamon crashed to the ground, a howl of pain escaping her lips before she fell silent upon hitting the ground. Garudamon looked up at the two flying figures, not distinguishable from each other in the blackness that was overcoming her vision. She could hear a voice, not the words, but a voice. "Don't worry Sora, I'll be fine."

"Hand of Fate!"

The beam of holy energy tore into the back of Lillymon; pain showed in her eyes, although no one could see it. She spun round to face Angemon, the digimonification of all that was good and holy. Her neutral, glazed expression gave way and turned into a harder one. One of anger and revenge.

"Lillymon. I don't want to hurt you, but you're fighting for a Daemon. You're fighting against everything we've fought for. Please, see what you're doing. Please." Angemon pleaded with her briefly before realising it was pointless. That the Greater Daemon had her too far under its power.He looked down, the others were finally staggering to their feet. _The Greater Daemon. It will be up as well._ Angemon spun round in time to see the flash of the sword before it cut deep into the bone of his arm. He screamed in pain as energy pulsed through the sword and into his arm, activating every pain receptor in his body.

The Greater Daemon withdrew the sword and landed on the ground, sword and claws horizontal in a defensive stance. It looked at the now standing digimon who were ready to attack.

"Giga Blaster!"

"Wolf Claw!"

"Vulcan's Hammer!"

"Horn Buster!"

The energy bursts streamed towards it, a slight movement along one of the dimensional axes that none of them even knew existed and the energy and missiles appeared to pass straight through the flickering image of the Keeper of Secrets. He dropped back as the blue werewolf ran at him, paw raised and claws outstretched for a powerful blow. It ducked down and jabbed a claw into the things stomach, blood ran down it for a few moments before the digimon instinctively withdrew and clutched at the painful wound.

"Anyone else think they can hurt me?" The Greater Daemon asked, its guard dropped now that it had seen the pathetic amount of skill these so called digidestined digimon possessed.

"Hand of Fate!"

A burning sensation spread along its back as the energy punched into it. A slight stagger forward was enough to show them that it could be harmed.

"Giga Blaster!"

"Wolf Claw!"

"Vulcan's Hammer!"

"Horn Buster!"

"Hand of Fate!"

The Greater Daemon spun round in panic as the five attacks aimed at it from different directions. Closer and closer the attacks drew, before the Greater Daemon jumped. An explosion smashed into it as the attacks collided with each other. It crashed up into the air, no control over its descent at all. It braced its arms in front of itself and prepared for the impact. The bone-jarring crash dazed it for a few moments. It groggily got to its hooves, it noticed the digimon ready to attack again, and also noticed that no one was paying attention to its human slave.

"Flower Cannon!"

The energy rained down on Angemon, pain from the sword wound having weakened him he quickly fell unconscious and de-digivolved back to Patomon. The Greater Daemon smiled and raised its sword skywards. A sweep of its four arms and a bolt of energy erupted from the ground. It hung there for a while as if uncertain what to do. The Greater Daemon motioned with its sword again and the bolt slowly moved towards the digidestined.

All of them easily dodged the bolt and got ready to attack once again. A scream interrupted them. Garudamon, now conscious from the pain was lying inside the bolt. Flickers of energy could be seen as the bolt slowly shrunk and disappeared, leaving a badly wounded Yokomon in its wake. Sora rushed to her side and cradled the unconscious Yokomon in her arms, tears welling up in her eyes. She stared at the Greater Daemon, hatred shining through her tears as they streamed freely down her face.

Tai turned to try and comfort her, but froze at what he saw. Mimi was silently approaching Sora, a pulsating cream coloured sword in her right hand. "Sora! Look out!" Tai screamed as he rushed to help her. The Greater Daemon watched Tai go to help Sora and laughed in its melodic voice. Mimi raised the sword and slashed at Sora, her aim was good considering she had never wielded a weapon. Sora looked in shock as the blade embedded itself into her leg.

The dull throbbing pain almost unnoticeable over the emotional pain that Mimi had tried to kill her. The throbbing became more persistent, insisting that Sora recognise it. She looked down; a little blood was flowing down her jeans, and another watery substance as well. The pain increased and she screamed out in anger, rage, pain, betrayal, and revenge. Her fist landed squarely on Mimi's jaw sending her reeling from the blow. Sword dropped to the ground and shattered on contact. Mimi recovered and got into a fighting stance, circling the scared Sora.

"Mimi!" Tai shouted as he reached Sora. "What are you doing?" He waited for an answer, hoped for an answer. His patience was finally rewarded when he fell to the ground having been punched in the balls by Mimi. His eyes rolled up so that only the whites could be seen, and a high-pitched whimpering noise could be faintly heard by Sora and Mimi.

The battle paused for a moment as all digimon watched the fight that Mimi was involved in. All the boys winced in sympathy as they saw Tai fall to the ground. The Keeper of Secrets laughed when it happened, she was more fun than it had thought she would be. It leant on its sword and watched the ensuing fight between Sora and its slave with rapt interest.

Both sides landed blow after blow, neither of them gave way though. Sora knew if she did Mimi would try and kill her. Mimi, on the other hand, had no choice. Mimi feinted a left jab, expecting Sora to dodge into the way of her other fist. It worked and Sora fell to the ground clutching her throat, barely able to breathe.

Joe dashed forward, a sense of survival overcoming the shock that had numbed even the digimon into inaction. His fist smashed into her jaw. An ominous crack could be heard in the silence that followed. Mimi fell backwards, eyes closed. A thud rang out as she hit the ground unconscious. Joe stood there, shocked at what he had done.

As soon as Mimi fell the Greater Daemon started attacking again. It dashed through the middle of the group, impaling WereGarurumon on its sword and slashing deep cuts in three other digimon its scythe-like arms.

"Flower Cannon!"

The beam smashed down into WereGarurumon before any of them could react. He let out a groan of pain as the energy tore him apart, before collapsing to the ground barely on the edge of consciousness. Pain flooded his senses and he de-digivolved back to Tsunomon with one final scream before falling into unconsciousness.

"Giga Blaster!"

"Vulcan's Hammer!"

"Horn Buster!"

All three attacks sliced the air as they rocketed skywards towards Lillymon, she saw the attacks close in on her, knew there wasn't time to dodge. Her form went lax as she welcomed the embrace of the final consummation of experience: deletion. Her thin frame spiralled to the right as MegaKabuterimon's attack smashed home, a ecstatic cry of pain escaping her lips for a few moments before Zudomon's attack hit and sent her spiralling in another direction. Another scream escaped as she found herself staring at the dual missiles MetalGreymon had launched. She looked at the sleek metal casing of the powerful weapons, admired the beauty of its destruction. Pain smashed through every part of her system as dual explosions lit the sky in a temporary lieu in the battle. Her vision clouded over and the pain dimmed along with her sight into the oblivion of nothingness.

The Greater Daemon turned back to the three digimon still standing in front of it. Anger flashed in its eyes as it remembered the short but powerful explosions. It stepped back from them and lowered its sword, leaving it open for attack. MegaKabuterimon needed no second chance, he flew straight for the exposed chest of the Greater Daemon, attack powering up to be released at point-blank range.

"Horn Bus…" MegaKabuterimon was smashed backwards as a powerful energy permeated inside of him. He crashed to the ground, limbs shaking like jelly, sweat pouring down his forehead. Globs of congealing skin started to peel off as he felt his nerves go numb. He saw blood spurting out of torn arteries, too deep in shock to feel the pain. He twitched one last time before stopping completely still, body, limbs, and even eyes frozen in place.

Izzy watched in horror as MegaKabuterimon fell to the ground. He turned his head and started sobbing as he saw the flesh start to disintegrate. He felt a strong hand pulling his head round to face it. He didn't want to. He was not going to see MegaKabuterimon die. The grip forced his head round, it was Joe. He looked at the spot where MegaKabuterimon had been scant seconds before. He was no longer there, just piles of rapidly rotting flesh.

The Greater Daemon laughed as the humans subconsciously went towards their now defeated friend. It felt a blast of heart near his stomach, its eyes widened in surprise as it saw the two missiles touching its delicate skin. It barely had time to realise what was happening when the missiles exploded knocking him to the floor, a creamy substance flowing out of the gaping hole. It held one claw to the wound to try and staunch the flow. It soon gave up and instead licked the quickly congealing substance from its claws.

Izzy crept towards the stinking piles of flesh along with Joe. It couldn't be true. MegaKabuterimon couldn't have died. Not so soon. His eyes caught a glimmer of foreign colour. He sprinted towards it and brushed the globule of flesh away that was covering it, surprised at how it disintegrated at the slightest touch. Underneath it he saw Motimon, unconscious and almost dead.

"Giga Blast!"

"Vulcan's Hammer!"

The two attacks smashed into the Greater Daemon's side as it tried to get off the ground. It fell face first into the stone altar as three streams of the creamy substance it seemed to be made of spurted out of the new holes. Pain mingled with pleasure as it forced itself to its feet and turned to face the two digimon. It grinned at them and planted its sword in the stone altar. "Let's see… if you can… take as good as… you give!"

A stream of white lightning rolled down from the sky and smashed into Primary Village, the deafening sounds drowning out the screams of the baby digimon as one by one the white lightning smashed into them with a power they were never supposed to endure. Cradles and baby digimon dissolved into black data that was swallowed up by the white lightning, creating a bleak grey colour to be imposed into the sheets of power. The humans and the digimon backed together as the grey sheets of rolling lightning smashed into and deleted the ground. Barely audible over the deafening noise they could hear a sweet laughter, infuriating in its pure sadism. Those that were still conscious screamed out in terror and pain as everything went white; their very atoms and data being ripped asunder.

PeterN: Hmm… I think that's the darkest part to date (although Matt's "dream" might have been darker). Anyway, hope you enjoyed that part. Please leave a review.


	15. Immaterium Part 15

PeterN: Sorry this section took so long to do, and sorry that it's so short. I am going to apologise to all Mimi fans that read this. From now on Mimi fans will not like me. Thanks for the reviews.

**Theo 'Blitz' Leung** – Very single-minded review there. At least there's no sophistry in it ^_^

**Space Dragon** – The reason it took so long was that I was in a sort of "I can't be bothered to do anything" mood. Two out of the four? If you mean Greater Daemons destroyed I suggest you re-read the end (either that or I need to). Also, what does "FAIYAA!" mean?

**Pikachumaniac** – Wonder how many baby digimon there were in Primary Village…. Oh well, I think they're all deleted now. A Gomamon fan as well?

**{Death}** – Why are you apologising?!?!

**Immaterium (Part 15)**

** **

The Greater Daemon looked round as the powerful magic begun to dissipate. Carnage and slaughter and death were everywhere it looked. Not even the ground had escaped its fury. He stepped over one of the myriad of holes and craters that littered what used to be Primary Village. Amazingly the altar was still standing. Now resplendent with gold and fine jewels. Suspended a few centimetres from the gold-plated cloth that lined the gleaming altar was a luminous-black void. A gateway into the Immaterium itself.

It stood on the now metal platform that the altar resided on and turned to survey the remnants of Primary Village. Any building blocks that had been left at the start of the battle were now floating down, small flashes of confetti in the slight breeze that brushed by its hair. It looked at the small fragments of cradles that were left, steam and data still rising here and there from the annihilated areas. It looked at the ground, pitted with deep craters where the magic had smashed even that into its base components.

Noise.

Light.

Pain.

The three things flooded his senses as he lay unconscious to the world. His subconscious creating a whirling diorama of noise, light, and pain. The noise settled down from continuous rumblings to discrete pulses of sound. The pitch increased and a fairly steady beat of noise came in its place. He opened his eyes, forcing them back as a brilliance he'd never seen before cascaded into them. The pain began to ease and faint murmurings could be heard. People talking. He tried to open his eyes again, risking burning out his retina in the flow of brightness.

The voices became clearer; naturally deep, but a higher pitch than normal. Words began to filter through the murky haze of pain. A sudden burning sensation spread through his body and he cried out in pain, eyes shooting open once again as his instincts forced him to move. Something held him down, a strap across the blackened mess that used to be his clothes, or possibly his skin.

He looked round as much as he could, now that his eyes were becoming accustomed to the glare. Three people stood round him as far as he could see and hear. Maybe more, but he couldn't move to find out because of the strap. Some more words brushed past his ears as he consciousness forced itself upon him with an inferno of pain.

A jab of pain in his arm, followed by sweet, blessed, coolness. Pain lifted from him as the wave of numbness spread through hi arm, and then his body. For a moment there was no pain, then blackness as unconsciousness once again crept over him like a protective blanket.

The sounds of a busy city filtered through his sense. Slowly he opened his eyes, shielding them against the brightness of the morning sun with his arm. He sat up and looked around. He saw the busy metropolitan skyscrapers he recognised. "Home…" he breathed out quietly as he took in the marvel of familiar surroundings. Slowly he remembered what had happened before he got there. He shot up and looked around with panic in his eyes. _Where are they? They had to survive. I did, so they must have. Yeah._

He spied an unmoving blob of colour, out of place in the city; Koromon. He rushed towards him and gently picked him up. "Don't worry. You'll be fine in no time." He looked around trying to work out where in the city he was. His sight fixed on a block of apartments. _Home sweet home._ He thought as he headed off towards it, Koromon unconscious in his arms.

He got to the door. _What do I say about Koromon? They might have been out last time, but will they still be out? Oh well, might as well go in._ He thought as he floundered outside the door with indecision. He pushed the door open and went inside, pausing just long enough to take his shoes off. He looked at the calendar. _August 14th. Still the same day._ He thought with relief as he crashed onto the couch switching on the television and the air conditioning, listening to the soft tinkle of his mother's wind chimes. A soft smile spread across his face for a few moments as he sat back and closed his eyes.

"Tai?"

He opened his eyes and saw Kari standing in the door near the television. "What Kari?"

"What's wrong with Koromon?"

His eyes snapped open and he looked at Koromon, still unconscious on the couch where he had forgotten about him. "He took a lot of damage, we all did." He sat up in the chair and turned to face Kari. "Other things have appeared in the Digiworld. Four Greater Daemons. We destroyed one, but the second one…. I thought it had killed us all." He slumped down with a depressed sigh as he turned to look at Koromon

"Are the others all right?" Kari asked.

Tai faltered for a moment, lips opening, no sound ensuing. His mouth closed and he shut his eyes for a few moments before trying to talk again. "I don't know." He finally said, guilt weighing his voice down into a whisper. "They weren't near me when I woke up….I'm here though, so they had to have made it."

Peace. She felt at peace. Her form felt light, floating slowly downwards through the weird blubbering of sound that soothes her. The sun was straight ahead, its brilliance shining down upon her. She smiled as she looked into it. She opened her mouth in awe of its beauty.

The tranquillity turned to hell as liquid fire smashed its way into her mouth. Sun clouded over as darkness begun to spread across her world. She flailed her limbs wildly, barely able to move them in the restrictive power of the place. The feeling of lightness faded as she picked up speed and weight, the world went crazy as she spiralled out of control in an ever-quickening dive.

She made one last attempt to cry for help. The fire mocked her as it smashed through her body, drowning out her silent pleas for help under an irresistible tide of pain and fear. She found herself staring at the sun again, flares of darkness raced across her vision as she clawed at her burning eyes.

The intricate web of darkness exploded, engulfing everything except a single pinprick point of light in the centre of her vision. The strange wailing noises faded into nothingness, the pain vanished from sight. Only the single point of light remained in existence. In an instant or an eternity, that too, disappeared.

He sat up sharply as a burst of cold wetness burst across his face. He screwed his eyes shut as the sun flared down on the area. He opened his eyes a few seconds later, now looking down towards the lake. He backed away quickly, knees grazing and bleeding a small red trail as he hastily retreated from the edge of the bridge.

Joe pushed his glasses up and stood up. People. He could see people nearby. _Home._ He thought as a weak smile momentarily appeared on his face, mostly hidden by the pain of his recent memories. A row of faint splashes brought him out of his memories and into reality. He peered over the edge of the bridge into the lake down below. Nothing. The water was perfectly calm. 

He turned round and saw Tsunomon lying on the bridge, a small puddle of red coalescing around his rigid form. Joe rushed over to him and picked him up. "Come on Tsunomon. Don't die on me." He looked up, getting his bearings for a few moments. He looked back at the unconscious Tsunomon and started running off the bridge without further thought.

TK shakily got to his feet as he looked at the mess that used to be him. He reached up to his hair and tried to run his hand through it. The gooey mass didn't budge much and he brought his hand back down. He looked at the red stains that covered his hand in shock and blanched. Gravity hit him with a vengeance and he collapsed, limbs feeling like lead before he slipped into unconsciousness once more.

Matt woke with a sharp pain as something crashed into his stomach. He shoved the thing away before opening his eyes. He froze. Panic stricken thoughts blurred through his brain faster than he could act on them. He slowly looked at the bloody mess that was his brother; TK. He looked at his hair, matted dark red with oozing blood. He fought down a feeling of nausea and picked TK up, panic still clouding his thoughts. He went off in a random direction, help might be there.

He never noticed the trail of fresh blood he was leaving on the previously green grass. Thoughts concentrated on helping TK, until, one by one, they disappeared along with his consciousness. They collapsed. Two brothers, bleeding to death in each others arms.

Mimi opened her eyes wide. She got to her feet slowly, feeling as though she ad woken from a dream. She looked at the destruction that spread out around her, the place that used to be where Primary Village stood. Blank eyes stared in shock at the place for seconds, minutes, or hours. The eyes took on life as awareness flooded into Mimi.

She looked at the place again. Not everything had been destroyed. She focused on the altar that she had been forced to build. It gleamed with beauty in the evening sunlight. Dazzling gold and jewels were made from the disgusting stone she had built it from. She took a step towards the altar without realising it. She looked down at her clothes, changed beyond recognition from what she had been wearing. The black and silver mix swirled as she looked at it, scenes of acts too horrific to describe accurately appeared and re-appeared differently in the blink of an eye. She re-focused here attention on the Greater Daemon. It was staring back at her, an unfathomable look in its eyes. It started towards her then stopped in surprise.

Mimi laughed. Cold. Evil. Sadistic.

PeterN: I am now scared where this story is heading. I'm going to apologise in advance to any Mimi fans, now that she appears to have embraced Slaanesh, you will not like what could happen (I don't, and I'm writing it!). Please leave a review.


	16. Immaterium Part 16

PeterN: Thanks for the reviews, and sorry for the slow update.

Theo 'Blitz' Leung – I chose Slaanesh partly because they were fighting a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh at the time. Also Khorne would have been a bad idea. If you truly wanted Nurgle (note to anyone who doesn't know, Nurgle is the Chaos God of pestilence and decay), there's nothing I can say. And Mimi doesn't strike me as the sort that would follow Tzeentch.

Pikachumaniac – Fortunately for me, your friend will never see me in real life to kill me. I've already harmed TK and Matt, now it's just a matter of whether they die or not.

Space Dragon – You're wrong. I did not choose Slaanesh because he/she/it is the opposite of Mimi. I chose Slaanesh because that is the Chaos God that most matches her personality (at least in series 1, which is all I have seen thanks to CITV…). Nope, the Keeper of Secrets didn't die, neither did the Great Unclean One. A Daemon cannot be killed outside of the Immaterium, they can only be banished back to the Immaterium for a length of time dependant mainly on how badly they got beaten.

the_hunk – Not really. I think putting "people" like Abbadon in the story would be disastrous! Then again, turning Mimi to Slaanesh is disastrous!

**Immaterium (Part 16)**

** **

Joe ran along, not sure where he was running to now that some sense of realism was seeping back in. The hospital, where he was running to, was not going to be able to help Tsunomon. He glanced back down at the small creature he was holding; his breathing seemed steadier at least. He slowed to a stop and looked around trying to decide where to go while he caught his breath. _Can't go back home, how would I ever explain Tsunomon to my parents? The hospital? Why did I even think of that? Outside is no good. Tsunomon needs warmth and food. Where?_ Joe thought as his lungs grabbed what little oxygen they could before he started running from panic again.

He caught sight of an apartment block. "Tai's!" He shouted out despite the lack of air. He ran off again, now knowing where to go, not noticing the strange looks people were giving him since he shouted out. He ran up to the elevator, pounded on the button, before doubling over trying to breath. Blood pounded in his ears as he fell against the wall and waited for the elevator to arrive.

He stood up, one hand against the wall to support his weight as his legs tried to collapse beneath him. A loud bleep announced the elevator as it opened; he stumbled into it and thumped the button before sliding to the floor, completely out of breath. Slowly his heart and breath returned to normal and he stood up, impatiently waiting for the elevator to reach the right floor.

The elevator shuddered, the lights flickered off, and the elevator smashed to a halt throwing him headfirst into the wall. He slid to the floor; face down, oblivious to the enclosed metal world around him.

Izzy slowly opened his eyes, squinting through them to block out some of the pain in his eyes. He raised his hands to rub them and stopped. In his hand was a plastic tube; his eyes followed the tube across the bed he was laying in and up to a bag of red liquid. His eyes opened wide in surprise, and he screwed them shut to stop the stinging.

He collapsed his head back onto the single pillow in the small bed as memories of the hospital crawled through his brain with agonising slowness. Slowly, long after he looked at his hand, the strange look of it dawned on him. He opened his eyes once again and looked at his hand; burnt. Burnt almost beyond recognition. He could see scabs covering it where blood had rushed through the damaged skin.

The damage slowly sunk into his brain, he realised the pain of it, and screamed. Tears streamed from his eyes, their stinging nothing compared to the pain that raced from his arms and legs. He looked at his arm, vision clouded by the teary streams he saw the bloodied burn marks across one side of each arm.

Vaguely he noticed a doctor or a nurse rush over to him. His eyes just stayed fixated on the injuries, while his mouth refused to do anything but scream. A needle was shoved into his arm and a feeling of cold spread out from the point. He felt the dumbness begin to overwhelm him and he screamed louder, nothing else mattered, nothing else existed. Abruptly he was silent; head fell back into the pillow, mouth still open in the mean o of pain. The person closed Izzy's mouth and watched him in the silence that followed his screaming.

"Like the eye of a storm…."

Sora choked. She lay on the ground, trying to clear her lungs. Slowly she choked up some water and she started to breathe again. She lay on the cold, stone floor as her memories drifted to her last waking thoughts. She slowly pieced it together. _I was drowning?_ She asked in her head.

The thought echoed round the area and she sat up, her head ached as the darkness spun and swirled in protest to the movement. She dropped her head back, forgetting the stone floor beneath her until her skull made a sickening crunch. Her hand went to it automatically and she felt wetness. She raised her hand in front of her face, squinting to see in the near total darkness that pervaded everything. She made out the red colour as the blood dripped from her hand and onto her clothes.

"Yes. You were drowning." A voice silently said in the darkness. "You were drowning, and you drowned. You were dead on arrival at the hospital."

Sora's eyes opened wide at the statement, then relaxed to normal as she realised how stupid the statement was. "If I'm dead, why do I still exist?"

The voice laughed. For a long time nothing else happened, just the recurring noise of a soft laugh, over and over, grinding through her head, the volume ever increasing until the blood was pounding in her ears, rivalling the volume of the noise until it seemed her head would burst.

An explosion sounded in her left ear and the laugh stopped instantly. Sora cried out in agony and her hands shot to her ear. Blood gushed out, steaming onto the pristine floor as she writhed in pain. The blood flowed down her arms, coating her in her own blood as she tried to escape the agony in any way possible. She crashed her head into the floor; creating a nerve-jarring crunch each time her softening skull hit the solid stone. One final thrust of her head and she lay motionless, blood still gushing out of her ear as a grey lump slowly spread itself across the floor to be covered in blood.

The darkness watched on as the girl quickly smashed her brain into a pulp. It smiled. The laugh started up again, although there was none other who could hear it this time. The laugh continued, a sweet, beautiful sound. The volume rose and the air started to vibrate with the sound.

Soft explosions could be heard in the tornado of sound as the girl's body exploded with showers of red liquid, and white shards.

Tai walked out the door, annoyance showing in his face as he prepared to look for his friends along with Kari. Koromon was still in the house, and Tai had left a note in case he woke up before they were back.

"I told you Kari, they'll be fine. They'll all probably at home right now. Sitting in the warm and eating, like I could be…." He thumped the elevator button again. "Stupid thing always breaking down."

"Come on Tai. Take the stairs." Kari said as she headed down, barely waiting for him to catch up.

Tai followed in silence as his conscience steadily warred against his want to stay inside and relax. _What if they aren't safe? I am, they must be. You know that for sure? …No. There, or are you too much of a coward to see if they need help. Of course not!_

They reached the bottom of the stairs and Tai sped up, determined to at least find his friends. He looked around, trying to guess where they were. "Let's try where I landed." He said as he set off towards the edge of the park. "Not much point though, they'll have landed just like me."

"What of they landed in the road, in front of a car." Tai froze rigid when he heard Kari talk. A few seconds later he sprinted off towards the nearby park, all thoughts of them probably being safe forgotten. He reached the park and looked around. Grass, tress; nothing out of the ordinary. He heard heavy footsteps behind him and spun round to see Kari.

"They're not here." He said flatly as he turned away and headed off in a random direction. Kari quickly caught up and looked round at the peaceful place, buried in the middle of a frenzy of hectic activity most of the time. The scent of the trees and the grass flowed into her, something she never really payed attention to before. Something grated at her senses, something just beyond conscious recognition. She looked around trying to work out what was bothering her; nothing. She set off behind Tai, her pace slowing as she glanced around nervously.

"Kari." Tai's voice floated out from behind some trees quietly. She ran over to where he was standing and looked at him. His eyes stared blankly in front of him. She waved a hand in front of his face and got no response. Slowly she followed his gaze and stared along with Tai.

On the ground was a pool of dark red blood, dried into the grass, a trail of blood, maybe five foot long, then a larger pool of glistening red surrounding two bodies, covered in each other's blood.

She doubled over close to the ground and vomited, barely noticing the vile taste in her mouth, or the trails of small yellow bile that dribbled down her clothes when she vomited a second time. She saw Tai rush over to them, blood now covering his hands. Her body tried to vomit again, but there was nothing left. The nauseous feeling stayed with her as she slowly walked to the crumpled heap, too shocked or scared to do anything else.

Tai felt numb as he reached down to Matt and TK, blood plastered his hands as he vainly tried to help them to their feet. He felt the sticky texture of the drying blood and saw the wounds on TK's head where blood slowly dribbled through a scab that covered most of his head. He realised they weren't breathing; he cried out in anger as he realised his friends were dead. Killed because he wanted to stay in the warm.

He crumpled to the ground, crying freely for the two friends he had known for what had been only hours in the real world. He lay there, barely realising what was happening as ambulance sirens blared through the area. Someone led him and Kari away from the scene, as two occupied body bags were loaded into the ambulance.

PeterN: Not very long this time (took six hours though), but it was getting hard to avoid a hentai scene between Mimi and the Keeper of Secrets. Apologies to any TK, Matt, or Sora fans for this part. I thought it was Mimi who was going to die first, maybe my subconscious thought I'd half killed her enough times. Please leave a review.


	17. Immaterium Part 17

PeterN: Well, exams are destroying my sanity for the past two weeks and the next two weeks, maybe time for some of the weirder Chaos stuff. I know this took too long to write, sorry. Thanks for the reviews.

**Pikachumaniac –** Yes, poor Matt…. You're friend can strangle you and pretend it's me, how about that? ^_^ Joe is still alive, and he got stuck in a broken down elevator… he was already jinxed!

**Space Dragon –** Wow… two reviews from you? I'm guessing you do not like so many deaths. How could I be trying to fit the current storyline? There are Greater Daemons attacking them, Myotismon got turned into so much powder, and four of the Digidestined are either dead or turned to Chaos. "Hey. Wait a minute. If the Keeper of Secrets could get inside MIMI'S HEAD and do as it pleased... HMMMMM..." This took too long for someone to realise, I really should have made it a bit more obvious.

**Emma/Ems –** I take it you don't like hentai then…. ^_^ Everyone half die? Three of them FULLY died! And Mimi I doubt you'll like what's happening to Mimi….

**Theo 'Blitz' Leung –** Sora and TK died. And Matt, not that you care.

**Immaterium (Part 17)**

** **

The driver glared at the oncoming traffic as he smashed his fist into the ambulance's horn while trying to dodge the cars. He swerved violently round a corner and several crashes could be heard from the back of the vehicle. He dared not look round to see what had happened, he had to keep his eyes glued to the road at this speed. The traffic had eased up now he was off the main road, he pushed the accelerator pedal to the floor and felt the G-forces smash him back into his seat. He glanced down at the speedometer and blinked in surprise before forcing his attention back to the road. _Never knew this baby could go so fast._ He thought with a slight smile on his faces as adrenaline surged through his body.

In the back of the vehicle a man slowly pulled himself off the floor and struggled to move away from the door he had been smashed into. He looked at the two body bags, making sure they had stayed strapped down through the journey. He felt sweat slowly trickle down his face and wiped it off, he glanced at the window for a moment and wished he hadn't when he saw the buildings blur past through the darkened glass. He fought his way over to the fastened down chair and eventually got in it. He stayed there for a short while, letting his quick, ragged breaths get the oxygen into his blood again. He opened his mouth to speak and then decided against it. _No need to distract the maniac._ He thought as he buried his head between his knees and tried to overcome the massive adrenaline boost.

The driver looked as a car sped towards him down the road. Down the wrong side of the road. His fist smashed once more into the ambulance's horn. "What's the matter ya maniac, huh, huh? Can't hear the siren, huh? Can't see the lights, huh?" He screamed out as he spun the wheel round a little and then back again, neatly swerving around the car in a sloppy looking skid.

A thud sounded from the back as the man flew out of his chair and landed on one of the body bags. His face looked straight at that of the dead person inside, he saw the spiky blonde hair, almost entirely saturated with dried blood now. He quickly got up, wincing as he felt a pain shoot up his arm where it had crashed into the metal bar of the bed. He got back into the seat and silently prayed to himself that they would get there soon, and safely.

He spied the gates to the building and aimed the hurtling vehicle straight at the small gap they made when open, a gap barely wider than the ambulance was. Fear passed through him for a moment as the vehicle hurtled through them like an out of control train. He smashed the brakes on and skidded round a corner. Pain flared across his chest as the seat belt stopped him from smashing through the window. The ambulance finally stopped, back door mere metres from the entrance to the building.

He felt the ambulance swerve to a screeching halt ad leapt up from the chair, within seconds he had the two beds unfastened from the ambulance and the door open and the ramp down. He saw his partner who had been driving the ambulance get round the back and each of them took one of the beds. They smashed through the doors, running as quickly as they could while steering a loaded bed, even if it was technically a corpse. They rounded yet another corner in the seemingly endless maze of corridors and pushed the beds into a brilliantly lit, but freezing cold room.

One of the several doctors in the room looked up as the two came in the room; they quickly positioned the beds and watched as the paramedics left. The doctor turned to his colleagues, "Now, my friends, we get down to business."

Sora's eyes shot open as she woke up. Memories slowly filtered their way through her tiredness and she bolted up as she remembered what happened. She looked down at herself; everything was there. "Just a dream." She said quietly as her mind flitted back to the pain she felt, and her death. "No make that a nightmare."

Darkness spread throughout the area and Sora looked around, alert and confused. She felt water hit her in the face as it started to rain lightly. She wiped some off her face and tried to look through the quickening shower. She noticed her hand and stared at it for a moment, slowly turning it in front of her face. "Black water?" She breathed as the shower turned into a torrent.

"Still in denial, my dear?" The voice asked. The same voice as before. "You still don't believe that you're dead?"

"How can I be?" She screamed against the drenching tide of blackness, she spat violently as some of the black stuff went in her mouth. The vile taste still refused to leave.

"I forgot how stupid you were. Now, have fun in that poison. The record for surviving it is two and a half days so far, try and beat it."

Sora tried to move, but found herself nearly crushed by an instant downpour of the poison. She could no longer see through it, totally submerged as she was. Her eyes started to sting so she screwed them tight in an attempt to keep the stuff out. She held her breath as long as she could, certain that she'd drown again. Seconds passed as hours in the solitary hell she inhabited, minutes as days. Lack of oxygen finally caught up with her and the breathing instinct kicked in, the poison rushed into her mouth and smashed into her lungs, one final bubble escaped her lips as the pressure forced out the very last air in her lungs.

Pain started to eat her up from the inside as the poison slowly eat away at her mouth, windpipe, stomach, lungs, and anything else it could get to. Slowly and excruciatingly, molecule by molecule, cell by cell, the poison ate away at her being and hit her with waves of pain that she didn't know could be felt before. The poison worked its way inside her clothes and started to eat away at her skin from the outside as well. Time passed in the lonesome place where for Sora, the only thing in existence, was pain.

Tai walked silently and slowly through the park. His mind was blank and his feet were on autopilot. Another tear slowly dribbled its way along his already wet face, pausing when it reached his chin for a while before dropping and shattering on the ground. A cold, unconscious, shiver passed through him as the slight breeze hit the new streak of water, drying it out to become yet another tear mark on his grief blemished face. His hands swung slowly in time with his steps, blood hardening and caking where he had not thought to wash it off. A drop slowly flung off his hands as they swayed backwards and forwards. The red drop sailed through the air for a fraction of time before smashing into someone else; Kari.

She too walked in the same slow, autonomic, say that her brother was. Her eyes were glazed over, but her mind was going too fast. Pictures of Matt's and TK's corpses flashed in front of her vision, both glued together by their deaths, cradling each other in one final embrace of life. Half formed thoughts raced through her mind, each one adding more substance to the slowly building image. She tried to think of something else, but everything collided into the picture. Nothing would detract from it. Nothing would stop it building. Pain smashed its way into the image as it gained more reality. She saw their pain, felt their pain. Her own mental scream adding to those of the image. The three voices rang out, a wavering beacon of death cutting silently through space. Pain hit them. Matt and TK and Kari. Their screams joining as one in one final, overwhelming, burst of pain. 

Silence.

Nothing sounded in Kari's empty mind. Nothing was seen. Nothing intruded into the shut off corner she had fled to. Alone she sat in a corner, eyes bleary with exhaustion despite being completely awake.She buried her face in her hands and cried, the all-prevailing blackness swallowed the sounds of wailing as the tears disappeared upon contact with the nothingness that surrounded her.

Mimi watched the Greater Daemon, the Keeper of Secrets with predatory looks as she walked slowly towards it. She slid a long, multicoloured, fingernail down an exposed bone running from the top of its stomach downwards, where it disappeared from sight beneath its silken clothing. A barely audible groan came out of its mouth and Mimi stepped back, a mischievous grin spreading across her mouth as she looked over the Greater Daemon for the first time since she had seen it.

She looked at its beautiful form, bedecked with gorgeous jewels and precious gems. The delicate silken clothing draped from around its waist and shoulders that had felt so soft. Its four delicate looking arms that beguiled a hidden strength, two ended in perfectly formed pincers, and two ending in graceful hands. It's elongated head, patterned with a beautiful mix between its visible exoskeleton and hidden endoskeleton. The two long, curved, horns that tapered to a dizzily small point, partially translucent and seeming almost to be made of glass or crystal. On its forehead was a strange symbol, pulsing with power, two half moons at right angles to each other, connected by a thin straight line that ended in an apparently infinitely deep sphere. She stared at the symbol for a little longer, her whole being filling with pleasure as she looked at it.

A pulsing darkness from her own clothes drew her attention away; she tried to look at them with little success. She looked round and went up to the altar, its polished surface acting as a brilliant mirror. A group of lines slowly drew together on her always changing clothes, now a bright yellow in colour, she watched as they formed the symbol on the Greater Daemon's forehead and stayed, superimposed, above the chaos that was showing in her clothes.

Mimi made a high-pitched squealing noise in delight and turned round. Barely catching the end of another transformation. She stared at her crest as its picture raged from the bright whiteness of sincerity, to the dark blackness of a new image. The sphere of darkness suspended above the altar flashed, a pure beam of black smashed into the crest, changing it to the new image in an instant, destroying the crest of sincerity for all eternity, and creating a new crest. The thin thread that kept it around the Greater Daemon's neck vanished as it burst into flames. The crest floated towards Mimi and she picked it up, recognising the now familiar symbol, the same one that both she and the Greater Daemon wore: the symbol of Slaanesh.

Tai and Kari walked into their apartment block, both of them slowly coming to their senses despite not wanting to. Tai pressed the elevator button as they waited in silence for it to come.

"I wasn't having a horrible nightmare by any chance?" Tai whispered in a weak voice, hoarse and cracking from crying and grief. "Why didn't I go out sooner like you said? If I'd listened to you, they might be alive still…. Why? After everything, why did they have to be killed? Murdered by that… thing!" He smashed his fist against the metal elevator door, blood trickled down his hand as he cut his hand on it. He collapsed into a heap on the floor, a useless sobbing bundle, hands covered with the blood of three people.

"Tai, it is not your fault. You could not have helped it. Now get up, you're no good lying there!" Kari's nearly hysterical voice pierced through Tai's shell and he slowly stumbled to his feet, blood dripping from his hand and pooling on the floor by his feet. He wiped his face to clear the tears, smearing his face with blood. They slowly went up the stairs and reached their apartment.

Both went inside, too distracted to bother with the usually autonomous action of removing their shoes. Kari crashed into the sofa, and Tai into the chair. Both stared blankly in silence for what seemed an eternity, before Kari broke down into tears again, Tai looked over at her and moved to the sofa, cradling her in his arms, an imitation of the fatal position Matt and TK had been in as the two cried themselves into the unforgiving oblivion of sleep.

Izzy sat up slowly, the pain no longer made him scream out, but it refused to leave almost every part of his body. His vision turned to see the drip that had been fed into his arm before he regained consciousness. He looked to the other side and groaned as harsh sunlight hit his eyes used to the darkness of sleep. A person rushed to his side, followed by another a few seconds later.

"Mum…? Dad…?" He mouthed, he didn't hear his voice, but saw them both nod. He rested his head back on the pillow, a faint smile touching his lips. "Home." He whispered before giving into sleep, a growing smile spreading across his face as he started to dream.

His foster parents looked down at his sleeping form along with a nurse. "He'll be fine, he just needs to rest. I've never seen anyone live through those kind of burns before, he's a real survivor." The nurse walked away, leaving the two parents happy in the knowledge that their son would be fine.

Joe groaned as he lifted his head from the floor. An irony taste filled his mouth and he spat out a mouthful of blood. He choked a few times, each convulsion spewing up more blood onto the small floor. He rolled over onto his back, gasping down lungful after lungful of sweet tasting air. He looked over at the still form of Tsunomon and stood up, intending to help him. A wave of dizziness and nausea swept over him as he collapsed to the bloodied floor, falling back into a heavy sleep.

PeterN: Exams are finally over (they were still going when I started this section O_o). Might get out parts a bit quicker now. Anyone think they have any ideas about what's going on in this part? Please leave a review.


	18. Immaterium Part 18

PeterN: Thanks for the reviews again. I know this has taken ages to get out, I've been playing through Final Fantasy VIII, and lost enough times to Ultimecia (Word thinks Ultimecia is a typo for Multimedia, anyone actually see a similarity anywhere?) to memorise her speech…. I'm sure this talking bit is going to look stupid when in the new chaptering system… oh well, who cares?

**Theo 'Blitz' Leung –** Yes be afraid, be very afraid. BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

**Emma/Ems –** Don't worry, didn't take it as a flame (hard to considering the contents of this fic and the number of reviews you've given me ^_^). Yeah, three dead, one possibly dying, and one turned evil. Only leaves two of them to save the world, and one of those is hospitalised! I think I have an idea of how long you waited for that part, but you can say if you want.

**Space Dragon –** Did you really think that I'd kill off three of the main characters in the fic? Nice idea with the Cerebral Torturer, although I think it's better if Kari is real and being tortured as well, I am trying to stick very vaguely to the anime after all, in other words Kari will be a Digidestined… assuming she lives that long. And I have no idea when Digimon is returning to the UK on terrestrial television, they have upped the number of random order Pokémon episodes though… -_-.

**Immaterium (Part 18)**

** **

A man turned towards two beds in the centre of a brilliantly illuminated room. He stared at the two young corpses, compassion absent from his eyes as he methodically went about what he was doing. He looked at the injuries on the smaller one's head; a huge gash surrounded by burn marks. "How did this not puncture the skull?" He mused as he turned to look at the remnants of what was probably a hat, but was now a small circle of blood coated material with some blond hair stuck to it, glued on by the dried blood.

A faint beep alerted their attention to someone coming in the room. The door clicked behind her as she stepped in, the door locking itself automatically. "How long?"

"Eleven minutes and… thirty five seconds." A voice piped up from the far side of the room as someone checked the digital clock on one side of the room.

"Thank you doctor. We're well within the record, anyone care to explain what caused this. I haven't seen injuries like this before. Not without the brain and skull being destroyed as well."

"Lightning is the best we can guess at the moment, I'm sure the military guys will use that as the explanation if they ever need to give one."

She looked around at the brilliantly lit and almost spotlessly white room. Here and there where some red splotches where blood had fallen on the previously sterile floor. Next to each bed was what looked like standard blood infusion equipment. On closer inspection though the tubes carrying the blood ran through several large machines, their purpose completely indecipherable to an outsider.

"Well, what are we waiting for people? Let's plug these two in and light them up."

A bleak, dingy light slowly filtered its way into his consciousness as his eyelids fluttered. He opened his eyes and lay there, silent in the cloud of sleepiness that still sheltered him. Joe slowly sat up, leaning against the cold metal door for a few moments before stumbling to his feet, one hand on his head where there was a fairly large scab matting his hair together. He walked to the elevator buttons and pressed the alarm button. Nothing. He sighed and thumped it a few times before a voice piped through the intercom in the elevator.

"Please do not panic. A repair crew will be dispatched to this elevator. Thank you for listening to the Sifer Safety System."

Joe looked at the circular holes where the voice had come from. "A recording? No one's listening?" he slumped down to the floor even further and waited for the repair crew to come and rescue him. _Wish I'd eaten before coming here._ He thought. _I'm starved._

Sora floated in the corrosive substance that surrounded her. Long ago she'd given up trying to get away from it. She couldn't move her limbs anymore. Had their been light, and her eyes had still been intact, she would have seen a slowly spreading red mist in the apparent void she occupied. It had seemed an eternity she had been in there, even if it was only a few seconds it would still have seemed as long. Sensory depravation of everything but pain.

The worst had passed already though; once the substance had destroyed her clothes and skin the nerve endings were quickly destroyed. One burst of indescribable pain wracked her system, paralysing her quickly dissolving body and slowing her already unfocused mind.

It watched her from outside the substance, its daemonic eyes easily capable of seeing in the total darkness it had used to scare the human. It watched the torn, shattered, still conscious, remains bob in the slight currents she had created. A lung fell out of her body as the diaphragm, the last thing keeping her torso in one piece, disintegrated under the relentless assault of agony.

It glanced towards the storage crystal, checking yet again that it was recording the scenes of agony. There would be ways to improve the torture; mistakes were always made, with the recordings the method could be improved, the ultimate torture discovered. The thing's eyes glazed over as it thought about the myriad millions of tortures it had used. "It will be improved."

It turned its attention back towards the girl, or more accurately the head of the girl. It swirled about in the now blood coloured poison. A gruesome masterpiece of the daemon's art. Eternal seeming seconds passed as Sora's head was finally destroyed in a panorama of pain. The poison that had been so lovingly created having fulfilled its task once again.

Tai woke up abruptly, a distraught Kari shaking him by the shoulders to get him up. He crashed off the couch and fell on the floor. "Kari…?"

"Look!" The tone of fear in her voice snapped Tai out of all the confusion of sleep. His gaze followed where she was pointing, the television. Their was someone talking on it, but no one listened to that. Everyone merely saw the pictures, stunned into silence or panic from the horrific pictures.

What was presumably once a town was being filmed. Flames danced everywhere, not a thing remained standing no matter where the camera moved. Here and there charred skeletons could be seen through the inferno. A flurry of voices sounded from the television, frantic voices, voices belonging to people who had seen their own death.

The cameraman looked in the sky as everyone else still alive in the God-forsaken place did. Unblinking eyes stared up the flying monstrosity, the harbinger of destruction. Feet unconsciously shuffled backwards, all too scarred to stay rooted to the spot, all too hopeless to flee from the place.

The thing swooped down from its flight, a giant swinging arc of its axe cleaving a lorry and its driver in two. Faces blanched white as the thing turned to face them. Across millions of television screens worldwide a single sentence roared through the speakers. A single sentence sending fear into the very souls of all who were present.

"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"

A stream of fire engulfed the axe as it swung down one last time, an area the size of a skyscraper vaporised in the single hit.

The static disappeared from the screens and was replaced with the familiar scene of the news studio. The announcer's face was pure white; no sound escaped his barely moving lips. Eventually the screen went blank as the television company cut the transmission.

Tai slowly stood up, his mind reeling from the shock of the pictures on the screen. His face went blank as he tried to think about the past.

Blocking out the sun was a giant creature of enormous proportions. Covered in luminous black armour, painted in the blood of fallen warriors it flew overhead, its axe swinging from side to side with practise blows in time with the flaps of its black, leathery wings.

He gasped as he became more certain of it. One of the Greater Daemon's was on Earth.

TK walked forward. Another step towards the always-distant horizon. He stopped and looked around again. The cracked and barren land surrounded him as far as he could see. From horizon to horizon the only life he could see was himself. Always alone, always craving someone else to be there, anyone else. He trudged forward, each step forced so that he could find out what was beyond the barren expanse. "Where are you Matt? Why won't you help me?"

Sora's eyes snapped open once again, she quickly checked everything was there, her mind remembering dying yet again.

"You're fine. Although you'll wish to die very soon if you haven't already." The sweet melodic voice started up again. It sounded vile and disgusting to Sora's ears now she knew what manner of beast the voice belonged to, even if she couldn't see it.

"What are you?" Sora spat in an insane moment of defiance.

"You've got some guts, I'll give you that. Or you might just be insane; you wouldn't be the quickest human I've broken before. Watch this little scene, all this happened around the time of your death."

_TK shakily got to his feet as he looked at the mess that used to be him. He reached up to his hair and tried to run his hand through it. The gooey mass didn't budge much and he brought his hand back down. He looked at the red stains that covered his hand in shock and blanched. Gravity hit him with a vengeance and he collapsed, limbs feeling like lead before he slipped into unconsciousness once more._

_ _

_ _

Matt woke with a sharp pain as something crashed into his stomach. He shoved the thing away before opening his eyes. He froze. Panic stricken thoughts blurred through his brain faster than he could act on them. He slowly looked at the bloody mess that was his brother; TK. He looked at his hair, matted dark red with oozing blood. He fought down a feeling of nausea and picked TK up, panic still clouding his thoughts. He went off in a random direction, help might be there.

_ _

_He never noticed the trail of fresh blood he was leaving on the previously green grass. Thoughts concentrated on helping TK, until, one by one, they disappeared along with his consciousness. They collapsed. Two brothers, bleeding to death in each other's arms._

Sora stared at the horrific scene in shock. "TK…. Matt…. Why…?"

The laugh resounded through the room again. "It doesn't matter, but you're going to convince them to come here. Once here… well, you know what happens here."

PeterN: Will Matt and TK get dragged into the same tortures as Sora? Would've made Sora's death a bit more graphic but I didn't have the time, and I really needed to start on this part and get it done. Looks like all hell has been let loose in this fic now though. Let the slaughter commence! Please leave a review.


	19. Immaterium Part 19

PeterN: Digimon has started on TV here again ^_^ The Dark Master arc, pity I'm on my way home from school while it's playing… -_-. Thanks for the reviews, and I'm sorry to anyone who still remembers this fic about the legth of time it takes me to write one of these uselessly small sections.

**Theo 'Blitz' Leung – **Aww, you like Sora I take it. Pity she gets killed off a lot. Glad I frighten you though. I might cut down on killing Sora though, it would just become a running gag if it happened too many times ^_~

**Emma/Ems –** That wasn't really a graphic description. I can't really do a graphic description, as I don't really know what a lung floating out of half a living "corpse" looks like. Are they going to be ok? Count how many of them are dead or injured and you might get a slight indication. Mimi turned to Chaos in part 17, Slaanesh to be more specific, and you probably don't want to know what Slaanesh is.

**Immaterium (Part 19)**

** **

Sora writhed, rolled, and pitched in pain. Her arms hugging her sides as she sank into the foetal position. The almost gentle tingling had suddenly ignited into an inferno of incineration. Millions of embers smashing into her prone form every second. Through tear and agony blurred eyes she caught sight of a white blur surrounding her. Moving up and down her body in time with the peaks of pain. The tears streamed faster, blurring out everything but the white glow. It stayed still for a moment before descending upon her once more. She screwed her eyes shut and let out a scream of anguish, as once again her body was hit with pain it shouldn't have been able to feel.

Suddenly the pain stopped. She slowly opened her eyes, expecting the glow to be waiting for her, taunting her into more trauma. It wasn't. She looked around, the usual darkness shone through wherever she was.

"How do you like the changes, my little pet?" The voice came out of the darkness, an edge to it Sora hadn't heard before.

"What changes? All you do is inflict more pain."

"I'm so glad the torture is working. What changes you ask. The changes to your body, of course. Maybe I should shine some light on the matter."

A barely heard humming filled the air for a few seconds, then light. Blinding. Brilliant. Blazing. Blasting her eyes like a ball of fire. Sora turned away, eyes screwed shut and hands over eyes. A faint chuckle came from the room as the creature watched the virtually helpless human. Slowly her eye's adjusted, all black disappearing from sight as the pupil shrunk too small to be seen. Finally out of the pain once more she looked at where she had heard the voice.

A silent scream of sheer terror filled her lungs.

Joe frantically glanced round as he felt the elevator shudder to a start. An endless second passed as he held his breath, head raised towards the ceiling where the lifting mechanisms where located. He finally let his breath out again as the elevator stopped and opened the doors at the next floor.

He grabbed the still unconscious Tsunomon off of the floor and sprinted out of the elevator, stopping only a few feet on the other side of the door. He suppressed a smile for a few moments then sprinted up the long flight of stairs towards Tai's apartment.

Finally he reached the right floor, dragging himself up the stairs by the handrail he stumbled off of the final step. He walked to the door, bent over with exhaustion. He pounded one fist into the bell and leant against the wall waiting for someone to open it.

"Blood's at twelve degrees. Everyone's going to schedule." The man glanced up from the monitors and looked at the two small children lying on the beds in the room. He looked at the blood flowing from their arms into the machine, and then back into their arms again.

An incessant beep grabbed everyone's attention. Several pairs of eyes stared at the monitor as it showed a massive burst of brain activity in the younger child.

"That isn't supposed to happen yet, is it?"

A woman looked at him for a moment. "Never happened to any of the others. Someone get some anaesthetic in that kid! One hour dosage."

Sora stared blankly ahead at the infinity point in the blank whiteness that surrounded of her. Part of her tried to remember what she had just seen, all of her remembered the terror at seeing whatever it was. She knew it was the sight of the creature that had terrified her to the point of insanity, but her brain refused to recall the memory.

"Come, come now human. Stop trying to remember what I look like. There'll be plenty of time for that torture later. Now is the time for you to convince your friends to join us."

Sora slowly shook her head, always keeping her eyes firmly pointed in the opposite direction from the creature. "Never!"

Unseen to Sora a grotesque smile formed on the creature. "I think I can change your mind."

Mimi walked down the busy street. The smell of pollution drifted into her nose as she passed by a stalling van. She breathed deeply and let it fill her lungs, a smile crossing her face for the umpteenth time since she had arrived back on Earth. Her mind drifted back to just before she had woken up back in her home city as she started walking down the road almost automatically, the smile getting larger the more she thought about it. She stopped by an electronics shop; a display television showed the news of the giant creature that had destroyed a town somewhere. Memories of the Daemon flashed through her mind, memories that she had not know before. She recognised it as a Greater Daemon of Khorne, the most powerful daemonic servant of the God of Blood, the Immortal archenemy of Slaanesh.

Sora's hand slowly rose to her mouth, she noted the change of her gloves, of all her clothes.Instead of her usual clothes she wore beige and white, the top had extended slightly downward and billowed out, the lower part of it ran from white through to beige, matching perfectly the colour of her pants. Her gloves, now white, cut off early so her fingers went through the perfectly sized holes.

Her hand continued to rise, one finger now curling outward from the balled fist. Slowly she put it in her mouth, teeth pressing into the soft flesh of the finger as her eyes widened in horror. Scant seconds passed while she remained frozen in that position, then blood oozed out of her hand as the finger fell with a tiny spray of crimson blood. The once attached appendage twitched once, twice, before staying still. Her hand remained next to her mouth; the dark red blood dribbling down her cheek and splashing onto the floor as it collected on her chin and eventually fell off.

Her mouth opened again and she screwed her eyes tight, waiting and dreading the pain that would come.

"I told you I could change your mind. I can control your body if you don't do this. Either way, human, I will succeed." The voice sounded again, slowly it sunk in as Sora recognised the voice. Not that of the creature, but her own voice. She stared ahead, her body refusing to move apart from her head. She looked down, the pool of red staining the blemished floor, while the finger danced in the blood of its own body.

A pain shot through her hand and she gasped in pain, her voice finally returning to her. She watched her hand, still frozen in place by her mouth. Slowly bone stretched out from the severed joint, muscle built up on it, as did flesh. In just a few seconds it grew back, still curled, as it was when it had been bitten off. She ran her tongue over her teeth reflexively, the ironic taste washing through her senses as she began to spit the blood out of her mouth, dribbling even more down her face.

A single spasm passed through her body and she could move again. Not held up by the creature her body collapsed to the floor, tears of pain adding to the mess of blood and saliva marring the floor.

Tai jumped.

Kari jumped.

The short loud pound on the door broke through their frantic thoughts like a chainsaw through wood.

Again.

The pound rang in their ears, both heads turned towards the door as the sound echoed through the apartment again. And again. And again.

Tai walked to the door, heart pounding as the television droned on in the background. Quickly he swung it open, a choke escaping his throat as he saw who was banging on the door.

"Joe!" he cried out, surprise and relief plastered over the word.

The two walked in the apartment, the gloomy atmosphere obvious to Joe in seconds. The memories of the elevator faded away as he watched the television, another news report on the giant Greater Daemon showing, the same footage being used again and again as no sane person, not even a news reporter, would try to follow it.

"…of the giant animal has sparked debate among scientists over whether an isolated geological area could have been separated from the rest of the world, allowing this creature to develop unseen for millennia, only surfacing once its isolated area was re-introduced to the rest of the planet. The earthquake near the destroyed town shortly before the creature appeared has lent some weight to this argument. Other, more hysterical people believe this creature is a projection of humanities nightmares…."

Joe stared at the screen, face devoid of all emotion and blood. "We saw that before…. It was what got Mimi…. How can we fight that thing? It destroyed an entire town." His monotone statement echoed Tai's own morbid thoughts 

"We have to try. We already destroyed one of those Greater Daemons, and the other one only survived because it was holding Mimi and Lillymon. How much stronger could this one be?" Tai looked at Joe. "We have to fight it."

"We're not in the Digiworld anymore Tai. We don't have to risk getting ourselves killed. There's military forces, they can handle this easily."

"What about Mimi? Don't you care that she's been captured by that Greater Daemon? Why can't you see that we have to fight?"

"Of course I care about Mimi! If you want to fight so much take care of Tsunomon over there." Joe nodded towards the sofa where an unconscious Tsunomon lay. "And go and fight that thing!"

Tai stared at Joe as he stormed out of the apartment, another rent in the group opening itself as the door slammed shut behind Joe.

TK ran through the bleak mist, his heart pounded in his ears as he pushed himself to keep the exhausting pace. Only fear and adrenaline let him run further, the roar that was behind him sparking both off. The roar sounded again and he clasped his hands over his ears as the noise tried to deafen him. A stench shot past him nearly forcing him to gag. Each step shot pain up his legs and throughout his body, reminding him that he was still alive.

The roar sounded again and he felt heat on the back of his neck, heard the thunder of giant feet pounding into the earth. He put on an extra burst of speed. The darkness closed around the corner of his vision, the poisonous build-up of the continuous sprinting slowly destroying his body from the inside. With a stumble he crashed to the ground, the loudest roar of all shattered the air like thunder and shook the ground. He quickly curled up into a ball, the flight instinct forcing him to hide in himself.

An explosion rocked the air. His eardrums echoing the explosions as they nearly caved in from the blast. Explosion after explosion rippled through the air, barely heard by TK as he tried to bury his head in the floor. He felt moisture on his back as he kept trying to claw his way through the rock. The drops splattered down on him as thunder broke through the sky, one last mind-numbing explosion of sound. The light pattering turned into a torrential downpour as he nearly drowned in the quickly rising water.

A strong claw smashed down into his shoulder, a jolt of fear smashing through his body as he darted forward. The strong grip caught him once more, harsh noises coming from the unseen monster. The grip tightened, claws sunk into his flesh as tears streaked down his face. Too scared to look around at the monster he just imagined it, the gigantic red beast. Talons at the end of each hideously deformed arm. One talon sinking into his soft flesh as his blood seeped out onto the ground, his life slowly fading away as it ate him, savouring his very fear.

Breath came in short bursts of fire in his lungs; his shoulder ached where the talon viciously shook him, trying to tear his arm from its socket in act of sheer pain. The rain stopped abruptly and a shadow loomed over him onto the red ground below. Furnace blast after furnace blast of breath drew into his lungs as his body tried to work again. Tried and failed.

PeterN: Took WAY too long to do that I know. Looks like the group is on the verge of splitting up or being completely obliterated by a Greater Daemon here. Any one got an idea of how to get them out of this? Please leave a review.


	20. Immaterium Part 20

Immaterium (Part 20)

PeterN: I know, way too long before I updated this. I'm running into writers block a lot now.

**Theo 'Blitz' Leung** – Thanks for the review. Glad I'm beginning to freak you out, seems to be taking to long to do that. But then again you may be a supporter of Chaos!

**Magna Holy Erzangel** – Oh, never doubt my ability to kill off some characters in the most sadistic method I can think of at the time (while keeping this below NC-17). What's KSA mean?

**Ornithoppip –** Thanks for the review. You seem to know Warhammer 40,000, do you play it, and if so what force? LOL, I'm not trying to make this confusing. Yep, Sora is in trouble, and you're guessing ahead of yourself with Matt and TK, last time I checked the Imperium wasn't in the habit of reviving children. Actually it's a small town somewhere that the Bloodthirster is demolishing, if he was destroying the town where the Digidestined live, how is Tai still watching TV? And I haven't really killed that many off… well, maybe I have….

**Immaterium (Part 20)**

A needle plunged into TK's arm as his body shook on the operating table. A shaky hand injected the contents and the doctor quickly put the needle down, grabbing the side of the table for support as shock washed over his now ghostly white frame. He looked quickly at the now still body before stammering a few indecipherable words.

Another doctor turned to face him, knuckles white where his fist was clenched tight around the edge of a cold metal table. A bead of sweat ran down his forehead, glistening in the harsh lights of the stark room. "Yes. He is supposed to be dead."

Joe looked up at the apartment block. Heat rising up through his body as the anger built up in him, his fists clenched and unclenched spasmodically as his lips furled up into a snarl of anger. A choked sob broke through the clenched teeth and he spun round, face flushed with blood as he fought to control the urge to kill Tai and every other being.

Slowly he walked away, eyes firmly fixed dead ahead of him, unfocused on the world as anger flashed in front of him. He quickened his pace, concentrating on walking. A single line of moisture dripped from his chin, and splashed onto the cold tarmac beneath his feet. The trace of the lone tear easily visible against the dark red anger of his face.

He looked back at the apartment block, now far into the distance. A few words escaped from his short, ragged breaths. "Damn you Tai. Damn you to hell!"

"TK…"

"TK.

"TK!"

The voice repeated itself over and over. More and more forceful each time. More venom in its tone after every utterance. The hate of the name it spoke dribbling to the ground like the blood he was covered in. He buried his head into his curled up arms, the blood that had seeped through his clothes threatening to drown him as it choked into his lungs like a plague.

His shoulder jerked back as he was pulled round. His eyes screwed tight so as not to see the horrible monster.

A loud thwack resounded throughout the area.

TK slowly reached his hand up to his cheek. He painfully felt the burning outline of a hand searing across his blood-soaked face. Slowly he looked up.

"Sora!"

"Come on TK. We have to get out of here!"

TK's eyes widened as he looked at Sora. Gone were here normal clothes, in their place was a light beige pants and t-shirt. Instead of the usual gloves were white ones that almost seemed to glow. But the thing that most drew his eyes was a slightly glowing pair of wings. Slowly his mouth opened as his lips tried to form words that refused to be spoken.

"Yes. We're dead. Now get a move on." She roughly grabbed his arm and yanked him to his feet. He stared at her, shock and adrenaline suffusing his wracked and tired body. A small tug and his arm was free, eyes glaring at the girl in front of him.

"You're not Sora!"

He took one last look at her before sprinting away from her as fast as he could, a spasm of pain shooting up his side as the stitch in his stomach became worse.

Sora looked at TK run away from her body and sobbed. Her body followed after the boy as the creature controlled it, allowing her only control to be over her thoughts. She screamed out inside her head as she looked on, helpless to stop the creature, but still feeling the pain of chasing after TK, trying to lure him to the maws of the creature as it forced her to do so.

Izzy slowly looked around the quiet, and save for him, deserted hospital ward. For the millionth time his eyes glanced upwards and he counted the tiles on the ceiling. He had to do something to pass the time. Anything. _Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thir…._

A faint, consistent beeping distracted him. The sound continued, constant and unchanging beeps. His eyes snapped towards the little cabinet at the side of his bed. More beeping. He threw the draw open, a shout of joy echoing through the desolate ward as he saw his laptop lying there, for all that time, unknown to him.

Carefully he picked it up, feeling the familiar curves and weight of his favourite thing. He hugged it for a moment, before he suddenly put it down, blushing. Quickly he scanned the ward, thankful for a few moments that it was so empty. Hearing the insistent beeping he opened the laptop up, and looked at the screen. A single icon flashed in the centre of the computer and his eyes opened wider. Slowly he opened the icon, a feeling of dread filling him as to what it would contain.

Gennai stood in front of the recorder. Explosions rocked outside and objects fell off of shelves. He quickly turned the device on and started talking, praying that enough of his message would get sent before they got in.

"Izzy!" Gennai's distraught voice came out of the speakers, their usual tinny rattling unnoticed through the sudden explosion that sounded through them. Izzy jumped, and the voice continued. "You must… quickly. A terrible… has happened. A… evil, helped by the…"

The voice faded out as static overpowered it, one single, deafening explosion smashing through the speakers before the transmission died.

Gennai jumped backwards as the wall of his house caved in under the constant bombardment. High pitched, chattering voices filled the air as hundreds of dimly glowing eyes appeared around the edges of the hole. He forced a breath as he looked at the gaping maw in the wall, sweat slowly trickling down his forehead as his feet subconsciously shuffled backwards.

A sudden frenzy of activity at the hole and Gennai ran backwards, turning round and heading for his armoured suit. Walls and doors flashed by his eyes in a blur, the fast paced chittering of the hundred of gibbering creatures behind him spurring him on. Flashes of blue and red shot past him as energy lanced out of their forms and smashed towards him. Sparks fried his arm as he ran past an exploding console. A high-pitched laughter rang out from a thousand mouths. Machinery exploded, laughter rang, footsteps echoed, heart pounded. The cacophony of noise and desperation painful as he stumbled towards the suit.

Pain.

Burning.

Searing.

He screamed out as he fell.

The monstrous creatures descended on his prone form in a second, just meters from his way of escaping. Pain kept him conscious as he looked through the sea of pink and blue creatures at where his leg used to be. Now no more than a cauterised stump ending just before the knee.

Slow, steady, footsteps echoed through the rooms. The creatures were instantly silent, scuttling into the corners of the room. Gennai looked up. The wall vaporised and a giant figure stepped through it. It looked down on him. It's look alone sending waves of insanity through the hapless Gennai.

With a final flap of its great wings it stared at Gennai. It's beak quivered slightly as a long tubular tongue danced across it with ravishing speed. A shifting, warping rod held in it's two powerful talons lit the room as it changed through every colour in the spectrum. It slowly looked around the room, slight chitterings of the small creatures started up for a moment. A single solitary clack of its beak silenced them as its head snapped round to face the prone figure.

"Fool! You could not stop this event. You do not know what you are dealing with here old man." It glanced at some of the smaller creatures. "You shall be a feast tonight, Gennai. Sacrifice him to the great God!"

PeterN: Well, thought I was never going to get another part of this done seeing how long it took me. I'm hoping I get back into writing these more frequently soon. As always, read and review.


	21. Immaterium Part 21

Immaterium (Part 21)

PeterN: Thanks (again) for the review Theo 'Blitz' Leung. I didn't feel like writing more to Immaterium, so I couldn't. Hmm… to torture Sora or not to torture Sora, that is the question….

**Immaterium (Part 21)**

** **

Mimi ran down the street. Up ahead she had spotted Joe, his head down and walking fast but aimlessly through the streets. The gap between them quickly closed and she called out his name. He spun round, anger still in his eyes and soul.

He looked.

All emotion drained from his body.

He blinked.

He blinked again.

"Mimi…?"

She collapsed into him and hugged him. "Joe! I'm so glad to see you."

Slowly and awkwardly he returned the hug, the powerful fog of shock still blanketing most of his thoughts.

"How did you get away?" he finally asked once some of his brain started connecting to other bits of it again. He looked at her, surprise and guilt in his eyes as she started to sob. Incoherent bits of words came bubbling from her mouth, not much of which he understood.

"…ran…explosion…helplessness…horrible…"

Slowly she stopped sobbing and dried her eyes with the back of her hand slowly. She looked into Joe's face. "There's another one of them here." She said in-between stifled sobs and breaths. "We have to kill it. We have to."

"It's ok Mimi. Come on, let's go to Tai's place, it's the nearest and his parents are out. We can talk about it there." He led her in the direction of the apartment block he had just stormed out of. _Maybe I was wrong, and Tai was right. Again. Why must I always get things wrong? So much for being reliable._

Mimi glanced quickly at the look on Joe's face. A faint flicker of a smile crossed her lips before the mask of sadness and desperation slipped back down over her features. A brief moment of doubt crossed her mind before she quickly dismissed it. _No. This is the way it is supposed to be now._ She thought as they headed towards the apartment block.

A long tall shadow cast itself out as silence descended. Slowly and purposely the head of the creature turned, its stare fixed upon a single object in the centre of two roads. Its burrowing gazed seemingly piercing the spherical stone as it deliberately read every word on the ring around it.

_One safe Route through turbulent Seas,_

_One Gate guarded by seven Locks,_

_Seven Locks embedded in stone,_

_To stop all others being used,_

_Never again to be revealed,_

_Never again the great despair,_

_Slaanesh, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Khorne_

_Chaos must fall or all shall die._

Contempt and disgust flashed across its eyes as it finished reading, memories trickled back from times millennia upon millennia past as it thought about the last battle. One simple battle was all they had to win. One battle against a weak, pathetic dimension.

The Greater Daemon looked around, all hell had literally broken loose as the armies of Chaos plunged into the dimension. Each of the major Chaos Gods had sent one army and one champion, none outdone by another. He was part of the Commander's elite squadron. This world seemed to classify its warriors by the titles of Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. Up ahead was twelve Mega ranked enemies, seven WarGreymons, three ImperialDramons, one Machinedramon, and one Piedmon if the spy sorceries were correct.

He glanced further on; just visible to his acute eyes was a massive source of heat on the horizon, almost blocked from view by the billowing clouds of smoke and debris where the initial bombardment of attacks had churned teratons of mud into the sky. Huge globules still rained down smashing smaller Daemons and Digimon asunder under the relentless downpour.

Onward they crept, slowly working through the almost perfect cover in absolute silence. He looked around wildly as a massive roaring sound burst around them, shooting through the air above their heads a squadron of Slaaneshi bikers soared across the craters and smashed through the raining landscape towards their target. His target. All surprise was lost and several of the distant Digimon fly into the air. Ten streaks of energy smashed towards the bikers, incinerating half of them in the first salvo. He felt the immense heat as the blasts carried on and scattered around the squad he was in.

The commander stood up tall, the greatest of the Lord of Changes. His wings unfurled and glistened like rainbows as he took to the air chanting in the daemon tongue. The squadron followed his flight as they sped towards the enemy. One giant graceful creature followed by its smaller, but no less deadly kin. The commander levelled his hand, palm outstretched at the enemy. A pillar of flame shot out and smashed into the rapidly nearing group of Megas. Three of them disappeared instantly as they warp flame engulfed them. The squadron shot out various attacks that they favoured destroying another two Megas between them before they were upon them. Just seven remained with none of the Daemons gone.

The smallest of them rushed at him, a sword in either hand, it danced with the grace of death as it threw sword upon sword at him. Pain flared through first one wing, them his leg, and finally his side as the swords pierced him. He faltered and fell back, saw half of his fellow Daemons shot or cut down. Only the greatest stood his ground against five surviving Megas.

He watched in awe as the Commander swung his staff, now luminescent with its own power, two Digimon fell in a single swipe as it disembowelled them before stealing their souls to Chaos. Lightning thundered overhead, a great Digimon of immense size and power roared down through the heavens. A single flash of light. The Commander was no more. Only dust remained.

He stumbled backwards, fear coursing through his mind, amidst the confusion and panic of the Chaos armies he snuck back through the gateway and hid.

His mind returned to the present as seething hate filled his mind. _This time I shall not run. You may have scared me last time Azulongmon, but I have had more than enough time to grow strong. Stronger than you will ever be. I know how you and your three friends made these things to keep us at bay, but I have returned, and I will smash the locks, and open the gateway. The flood of Chaos shall rise once more, and this wretched dimension shall fall at our feet!_

TK ran. Faster. Still faster he needed to go. He glanced back. Too close. The thing was there. The thing pretending to be Sora. Catching up. He looked ahead again. Head down. Arms pumping. Feet running. Blood flowed under the floor. Regular thumping assaulted his ears. The floor contracted in time with it. He glanced around in panic. It was alive. The whole place alive.

He fell to his knees as he tripped. He saw the flesh like floor, soft and breaking. Thick knots of muscle stretching out as far as the eye saw, pumping, constant and steady. His own heart raced as his lungs cried for more and more air, a frenetic counterpoint of frenzy to the massive vein-like place he was in. Blood pulsed beneath it, pushing the floor up as it passed. His knee sagged into the floor, through it. Blood sprayed up as it was ripped. Pure fear saturated him as thoroughly as the blood saturated him. All sanity blasted from his mind as he collapsed coated in blood.

Not noticed by him, two hands yanked him upright and picked him up, moving towards some unknown destination.

Joe and Mimi entered the apartment block, Joe dreading taking back everything that had happened with Tai not ten minutes ago. Quickly they climbed the stairs and reached the door. He swallowed and knocked on the door again. An age later Tai opened the door. A second of anger was written on it as he looked at Joe, before noticing Mimi.

He rubbed his eyes and looked again.

"Mimi?" he said slowly, but now with a smile.

"I'm glad to see you too Tai."

"How did you…"

"I-I'd rather not say…." She interrupted slowly trailing off and noticing the slight look of horror on Tai's face. She quickly went in followed by Joe. On the television was the constant news report on what was believed to be a giant animal.

"…n. Military units are moving into place as we speak, several nearby tank divisions have been dispatched and are expected to reach the area within the next fifteen minutes. If you have just joined us, we are still reporting on the giant animal that has killed everyone in a town and is now demolishing every building. The destruction this thing has caused is horrendous and the loss of human life a great tragedy. Just in, it appears that a tank division has just arrived. We regret we cannot bring you any pictures of this, but among the loses were our reporter team…."

Mimi listened to the television intently, hate showing clearly in her eyes as she sat down in shock. Joe and Tai sat down next to her.

"It'll be ok Mimi. The military will easily be able to destroy that thing and everything will be as it should be soon enough." Joe tried to comfort her as the reporter started speaking again.

"No…. The animal has just destroyed the tank division…. It was not harmed and is now moving…."

Joe thumped the off button on the remote in annoyance while Tai just looked at him with what would normally have been a smug look.

Mimi gaped at the now blank television screen for a few seconds. "We have to do something, maybe the Digimon can destroy that thing like the other one."

"Where are they though?" Kari asked, "Only Koromon and Tsunomon are here, and both of them are unconscious." She turned to face Mimi, "Do you know where Palmon is?"

Mimi looked back at her for almost a minute in silence, tears swelled up in her eyes and she broke out crying.

PeterN: Wonder whether anyone will read this as it's taken so long to do…. Please read and review anyway though.


	22. Immaterium Part 22

PeterN: I never thought it would take me this long to get this far. One year today since I started writing Immaterium (with really huge gaps in-between lots of parts). I have to say thanks to Theo 'Blitz' Leung for actually persevering with reviewing this.

**Immaterium (Part 22)**

****

Kari looked at the others as they walked out the door, finally Mimi had been calmed down and they'd decided to try and find Sora, Izzy, and the rest of the digimon. They closed the door and she settled back down onto the sofa and turned the news back on, the horror of the events both petrifying and compelling a nearly worldwide audience to watch the news services in their area. She turned her head towards the window, catching a quick glimpse of Joe, Mimi, and her brother hurrying down the road.

Joe, Mimi, and Tai walked quickly through the streets. The decision had been made to check Sora's place, the Izzy's place. None of them daring to think ahead to what to do if they didn't find them there, none of them speaking or thinking about Matt and TK. They hurried through the deserted streets in silence, only one vehicle was out, an ambulance, sirens blaring as it raced off. They looked up and after barely a moment's hesitation, ran after it as fast as they could.

A small crowd of emergency vehicles were gathered at one end of the bridge, a single police officer keeping back the small crowd as they tried to satisfy their curiosity. Tai ran up ahead of Joe and Mimi, straight past the officer and looked at the small huddle of paramedics and ambulance crew. A single figure lay on the stone cold ground, a portable oxygen pump attached around her mouth. Her pale white face completely still, and her chest moving up and down in time with the oxygen pump. Lifeless eyes staring straight upwards as he looked into them.

He missed his step, knees sagging as he looked at the girl and crashed to the floor. Part of him noticed Joe and Mimi nearing him and the police officer talking to someone, at him, as his face hit the ground. Tears streaked down his face again as he shut his eyes tight, a single name escaping his sobbing lips.

"Sora…."

Waves rolled by crashing into the base of the cliff with a roar muted by distance, clouds floated by in the sky, the sun beamed down, and a small breeze blew in his face. Matt pulled his harmonica out of his pocket and played a few noted before sitting down on the edge of the cliff, his legs dangling over the side. He closed his eyes and started playing a slow, sombre song, forgetting the idyllic but seemingly empty world around him. A small figure walked up behind him and listened intently while he continued to play the short tune. He ended it, put the harmonica back in his pocket, and sighed.

"Matt."

He turned round, coming face to face with Gabumon. A smile finally spread on his face after what seemed like unending days of solitude on this island.

"Gabumon. I'm so glad to see you, I haven't seen anyone since I've been here."

"Me neither, I followed your harmonica though. Your song, it sounded so sad. What was it?"

"I don't know, it just came to me." He sighed and pulled the harmonica out again and started slowly playing the same sombre song once more.

Gabumon looked out across the peacefully rolling ocean again while he listened to Matt's harmonica. He lay back and watched the clouds float by, drifting on the gentle breeze that blew in his face. The harmonica stopped and he glanced at Matt, the way his gaze was unwaveringly fixed on something behind worrying him. He whirled around and his eyes widened. Dozens. Hundreds of them. Slithering and dancing towards them. Grotesque and seductive. Razor claws, slashing, beckoning. He looked round at Matt. Nothing there. Moving towards them. Eyes drawn back to the deadly dance. He shook his head, cleared it for a moment. Ran. Ran into Matt. Knocked him away from them. His face softened. Sense returned to Matt a little.

"Run!"

They turned and sprinted. Both realised too late. Both fell as they found the cliff. Ground and sky flashed by. Rocks smashed them. Faster. Ever onwards. Ever downwards. Everything turned black. Their lifeless bodies smashed into the ground far below, blood seeped out of them, washed away by the small incoming tide. Gently lifting them up and pulling them towards the ocean.

Slowly she dragged him along, struggling to move him as he frantically kicked and punched in vain at her.

"Stop struggling TK. It'll be easier if you just come along with me." She half muttered in an attempt to get him to stop hitting her

"Never! You're not Sora! And I'm not going with you if I can help it!"

Sora looked at TK as her body moved to the creature's control, she saw the blood he was covered in, felt it cover her hands where she dragged him. Felt the blows he tried to get away with. Felt the inexorable power of the creature control her body totally and half control what she said. She cried out in anguish. The sound echoed through the empty nothingness she was dragging TK through. She jumped. Her body, it was back.

She dropped TK as she fell to the floor. Mumbled apologies tumbling out of her mouth as TK fled away from her in terror. She sunk lower, further and further downwards through the darkness as she wallowed in self-pity. A speck of light caught her attention as it burst into life far below her. Slowly but surely it was getting closer. Straight towards her. Stretching out it rapidly filled horizon to horizon. Fire. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened as she accelerated faster and faster towards it. Billowing flames shot up at her, burning but without setting her alight. Burning, laughing, balls of incandescence danced around her as she plummeted. Jabbering, gibbering, balls.

Pain flared through her leg as one slammed itself into and through her. Her jeans caught fire and she screamed in pain. More and more of them smashed into her. Arms. Legs. Head. Everywhere. Her entire body turned into a screaming fireball of agony. Her eyes looked past the flames and saw only more flames. Her burning wreck of a body wracked with pain, hurtled into the flame pit. A spray of flesh, bones, and blood exploded out where she hit, dancing on top of the flames long after her body had been obliterated.

The Greater Daemon stood in shock, it played those agonising few seconds where it had lost control of her body over and over in its head. Every time cursing itself with the best insults it could think of for being so over-confident, again.

An evil smile touched its lips as it started mumbling to itself. _Too long. I will wait for you to come to me no longer. I will take all of you. Now. _It raised two slender arms in defiance and exclamation. Balls of lightning erupted from its palms, a flickering and explosive brilliance, rolling through the air. Walls phased in and out of existence, thin air exploded. Everything around it twisted out of shape and reformed as the Greater Daemon slowly floated into the air, power coalescing all round its form and searing out, searching out for the twelve that had made a complete mockery of it and the two that had turned to the loving embrace of Slaanesh.

A flash flare of blinding incandescence annihilated everything the Greater Daemon could see as it spoke.

"Run. Cry. Die! Your torture is eternal once I have your souls."

Izzy looked. Greenery was all around him. His mouth gaped open as he realised all his injuries had suddenly disappeared. He noticed seven others, with almost identical looks on their faces for their own personal reasons. He tried to formulate some theories of what was going on, giving up sooner than he'd started.

Mimi made sure her face showed the same look of surprise all the others had. The game had to be played out as best as she could. She checked the others' reactions and blinked in surprise when she saw a girl who looked about eight years old with them

Joe glanced round furiously, his mouth trying to say something, but only a single whisper of breath coming out. "Where…?"

Sora stood perfectly still. Once again she forced herself to ignore what had just happened. Forget that she had been a hurtling human fireball, had probably exploded when she smashed into whatever the flames where coming from. She shuddered. Forced the memory to the back of her mind and turned her head to see where she was. All of the digidestined, and Tai's little sister, where there. TK slowly backing away from her, and Tai staring at her with eyes wider than they should go.

Matt slowly brought his hand to his head. He knew he'd cut himself when he fell down the cliff, yet he was perfectly fine and with the rest of the digidestined around him. He looked as far as he could into the horizon. No cliff was anywhere. Just an endless forest of trees and plants.

TK frantically whirled his head round. One moment he had been fleeing through nothingness away from the monster impersonating Sora, and now he was here. Somewhere in a jungle he guessed a few moments before noticing Sora. She was back in her normal clothes now, and she definitely didn't have wings anymore. She stared back at him; imaginary daggers shot straight from the look and lacerated his heart a thousand times over. He started to back away, a blur shot out from the side of his vision and launched itself at her making him pause for a moment.

Tai doubled over with nausea and vertigo, his vision blurred and doubled for a while and he glanced upwards. Through the blurs he saw her. Tears swelled in his eyes as he leapt forward and hugged her tight. "Sora! You're all right! I s-saw you lying there. I thought you were dead…"

"Is this the Digiworld?"

"What?"

"Is this the Digiworld, Tai?" it was Kari, her eyes full of surprise

"K-Kari? Where… I mean why… how are you here?"

"I don't know. I was watching the TV and everything got covered in a sort of blue light, then we were all standing here."

"Uh… I hate to be a wet blanket…" Joe interrupted his gaze locked firmly on something above them, "but we have slightly bigger problems to worry about now…."

"What are you talking about?" Tai shouted over the rest of the groans

"Only a few dozen angry looking digimon flying straight at us!"

Everyone looked up for a few seconds, maybe thirty digimon in all were bearing straight down at them, eyes blazing with anger as they began to prepare an attack. They quickly glanced at each other before deciding what to do.

"RUN!"

Everyone bolted straight for the nearest edge of the clearing they were in. All their previous worries instantly forgotten as a plethora of attacks smashed into the clearing, turning it into little more than a bog.

"DemiDevi Dart!"

_Thunk_. Faster. Round a tree. Another. _Thunk_. Darts flying. Hitting trees, ground, everything. _Thunk_. An extra burst of speed and the darts stopped flying out at them. Tai risked a glance back and saw that everyone had more or less kept up with him.

"V-Laser!"

Lashes of light. Racing past. Trees disintegrating. TK glanced back. Tripped. The ground rushed at him. Hit him in the face. A yank on his arm. Hauling him to his feet. Sora. She mouthed a word. Run. Trees blurred past as they prayed to be missed. The attacks stopped and they glanced back again. Clear. Still they ran, pain lancing up their legs as they pushed themselves beyond the limit. Another clearing ahead. Too large too avoid.

As one they screeched to a halt when they entered it. There, at the far end, stood one of the Greater Daemons. It turned its head towards them and raised an arm in an almost friendly manner as it smiled seductively with its fanged mouth.

"So glad you could make it. I was half afraid that those digimon I… shall we say coerced… into driving you towards me would kill you before I got to play with you." Its smile dropped away into a more savage expression and its eyes locked on Kari. "And just what are you doing here? This was meant to be a private revenge. Never mind. I'll just kill you as well as the others. I hope you're ready to die, I know I'm ready to kill you my little toys."

PeterN: Please read and review, maybe one day I'll actually manage to write these parts in a normal amount of time again.


	23. Immaterium Part 23

Windie_ACY – Glad you think it's so good, never thought it was that good myself.

Theo 'Blitz' Leung – Thanks, but I'm not being that mean am I? *Hunts round for halo prop ^_^. Best to just wait and see when the agony will end, as I have not the slightest idea myself.

**Immaterium (Part 23)**

****

The Greater Daemon spun on the spot for effect and morphed one of its swords into a pulsating purple guitar. Faces leered out of the surface, hollow eye sockets straining to see as mouths silently screamed and noses leaked blood. Wide eyed with revulsion they looked at the thing for the first time this close. Their eyes helplessly drawn to the instrument as it emitted a few soft screams and wails of pain. Faces raced round, crashed into each other and disappearing under a tide of new horrors. A larger, human, face morphed out of the handle and stared at them pleadingly with his one eye before being shoved back into the guitar by a violent prod and a few mumbled words from the Greater Daemon. It strummed a few chords, wails escaping from the mouths of the faces to make the notes as the strings moved.

"Feel free to sing along as you die."

Eight mouths screamed in unison as they turned and ran straight back into the forest. It smirked as it heard the screams and did its best to incorporate them into the music as it ambled after them. A low-pitched wailing sound rocked around them, instantly forcing them to cover their ears. A thump to their right sounded. Joe risked a glance round, stumbled once, almost stopped, and ran even faster. The trees danced, writhed, and plodded towards them. Inexorably falling behind, yet constantly catching up as the trees ahead began to spring towards them. Torturous parodies of trees smashed through each other, storms of leaves slicing through the air at them as they ran. Matt glanced to the side, saw the hail of leaves and ducked his head down further as he put on an extra burst of speed.

Silence.

Only the regular and rapid _thump_, _thump_, _thump_, of their hearts and the crashes as the blundered through the firmly rooted trees. They slowed to a stop and crashed to the ground, explosive pains burning at their lungs as they breathed deep mouthfuls of cool, soothing air.

"Got to… keep… moving…." Tai managed to gasp as he got to his feet and started to stumble away. He vaguely motioned for the rest of them to follow him before crashing into a tree and falling down.

"We can't run… from that thing forever. Sooner or later… it's going to catch us. I don't think it… cares when. You saw it following us. It was walking."

"What else can we do for now? Fight? Just how are we meant to fight it Joe? If you haven't noticed we currently lack any means of attacking it."

Mimi giggled inwardly "Izzy, can't you use that computer door that we used against Etemon?"

Everyone turned to face her, no one knowing what to say for a few moments. Izzy powered up his laptop and his hands flew across the keyboard. He heard a maniacal music start up again, high-pitched squealing shooting out towards them.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are…."

They glanced backwards, saw a mass of trees explode. Wood shards rocketed at them, sliced into their skin as they cried out and blood seeped out of their wounds. Everyone nervously glanced at Izzy as he slammed his hand down on the keyboard. Eight digivices started beeping, eight glowing pools of light that spread out around them. They looked at the bubble of fluorescence that encased them, almost separating them from the outside world. One by one the digivices grew silent. And the world exploded.

The Greater Daemon laughed hard as he brought his giant axe towards a towering office block. Pathetic humans screamed in fright as they saw the five-story tall weapon arc towards them.

He swung the axe.

Light exploded.

Blinded.

Felt the axe pass through empty air.

He blinked his eyes clear and stood there for a few seconds. All trace of the thriving city he had been about to demolish had vanished. Instead he was standing in a desert, poles sticking out of the ground at regular intervals. Anger flooded into him as he worked out an inkling of what had happened.

He glanced up as he heard a bellowing roar reverberate across the land. A smirk passed across his face. _Sounds like that large oaf failed to smash something with his oversized axe. I do so love when that happens._ He turned his attention back to the spherical stone in front of him. All around the ground was scorched black and gaping craters were exposed in the ground where he had tried to unlock it. _If you think this will stop me Azulongmon, then you are wrong! I will unlock these, and I will have my revenge on you._ He swung out his staff, shining with internal power. Flames and ice shot out and smashed into the ring.

Nothing.

He looked towards the sky, graceful wings unfurled as he shot upwards. He looked back down at the stone, nothing more than a speck from this height and raised his staff high above his head. A stream of magic flowed out of the staff, pure energy smashed into the forest near the stone. Gouges scoured hundreds of feet through the ground and an inferno instantly engulfed the forest. He flew away, some of his anger now vented, in search of the things he needed, all eight of them.

It fell to the ground, its guitar like weapon broken into fragments. Transparent faces streamed out of it and fled upwards. The colour drained out of the weapon and it cracked, splintered, and finally disintegrated in a small puff of dust. The Greater Daemon slowly stood up, blood caking its clothes and skin together. Vaguely it remembered the massive explosion of light that had knocked it unconscious for what it hoped was only a few seconds.

Anger flooded through its mind as it stood there, staring up into the fiery storm. Its mind flickered onto Mimi. _What was she doing? She's supposed to make the hunt last longer! Not make random explosions! I'll have to teach her a lesson after the hunt is over._

Out of the corner of its eyes it noticed the pale, lifeless, dissipating pile of dust. Seconds later it recognised what it was.

His favourite doom siren.

Gone.

Destroyed.

Lost forever.

Thousands of souls, escaped.

Freed from the supposedly eternal torture.

Grabbing its sword it let out a scream of anguish as a stream of fire shot out from it, re-igniting the forest into a new firestorm. It kicked at the ground in anger as pain flared through its leg forcing it to drop the sword and stagger towards the ground. Slowly it regained its balance, picked up its sword, and using it as a crutch, limped through the burning and smouldering ruins of the forest as flaming leaves rained down around it.

"…th… re… ight?"

"…on't… omon."

Sounds slowly filtered through the blackness of unconsciousness.

"Come on… Wake up!"

He tried to ignore it. He was comfy as he was.

"…ry to… shes?"

"…ot mu… ioce."

"Marching Fishes!"

Hundreds of nerves flared up and he bolted upright, spluttering as he cleared water from his mouth. Slowly he stopped gasping for breath and started glaring daggers at Gomamon instead. Joe came up to him and handed him some water that he swallowed as quickly as he could, only then realising how dry he felt.

"You've been unconscious for a few days now. How are you feeling?"

"Yeah, you had us worried there Izzy" Mimi piped in.

Unsteadily he got to his feet, glad that Joe rushed to help him when he started to stagger a bit. "Not good."

"You should be a lot worse off, whatever you did blew that forest up we think."

Izzy slowly looked around at the cave they were in. Rubble was strewn everywhere, and thick dust was still settling. "Where are we?"

"Remember the first of those Greater Daemons we destroyed?" Tai asked, "Well, of course you do. But that cave's where we are. Or what's left of it."

The sun shone down behind his back, his wings were spread wide as he glided through the air towards the gate through which the armies had poured through long ago. Faintly in the distance he could see the barrier, an enormous cylindrical mass of flames, searing anything and everything in their way. Even from this distance he could feel the heat, the very energy of the dimension itself, the one thing that made it such a valuable prize, the one thing that stopped it being used.

A nice plan Azulongmon, but leaving the keys with human children was a mistake. I will open this gate up, and Chaos shall come through. Once we have conquered this nexus we can go to any dimension, and they shall know it was your fault, all your fault Azulongmon.

Slowly the dark form moved, two slits opened up and it looked around. Flying around it was a small spherical digimon with wings. "Energy…. I need energy…. Now…."

PeterN: That seemed too anti-climatic after the last part -_-. Please read and review.


	24. Immaterium Part 24

**Immaterium (Part 24)**

****

"These creatures may prove to be a threat." A mechanical voice sounded in the darkness. "What do you plan to do?"

"Yeah, they don't look fun at all!" A vaguely childish voice this time.

"Nothing. The children already destroyed one of them. We will let them destroy the creatures and then, for the finale, move in to finish the children off when they are weakened. It will be my greatest performance to date."

* * *

The Bloodthirster, Greater Daemon of Khorne strode through the desert smashing the pointless poles sticking out of it to pieces as he went. Anger welled up inside him as yet more of the endless desert kept appearing. With a roar of rage he took to the air and flew upwards.

"Are you all cowards?!"

"Show yourselves and fight!"

Only the echoing silence of the dessert mocked him back.

* * *

 "Do you really think we'll see anything out here Izzy?"

"It's best to make sure Tai. The Greater Daemons aren't showing up on my computer anymore."

"Oh great. They could be hunting us down right now. Or waiting till we sleep to attack us."

"Shut up Joe." Gomamon muttered as he peered out into the distance from the partially collapsed tunnel they were in.

"Sorry." Joe sighed as he sat down on one of the thousands of boulders in the tunnel

"You and Tai keep a lookout here." Izzy's voice echoed as he walked back into the cave. "I'll try and get this tracking program working again."

Slowly he went down the tunnel to one of the most stable looking caverns they'd found. A furious and echoing clicking sound pounding out from his laptop as he tried to fix the tracker program. _What's wrong with this program? It should work._ He checked it again and saw it showing their own partners. _It does work…. But then why is it not showing the location of the Greater Daemons…? Why i…._

He looked up as he crashed into something, someone, Mimi. Slowly his eyes followed his laptop as it fell, almost drifting, to the floor. A second later he heard a thunk, wincing as his laptop smashed into the solid rock.

"Izzy, I'm sorry. I should have been looking." She said quietly, a tiny unnoticed smirk showing on her face as she reached down and picked up the slightly dented computer before handing it back to him, all trace of the smirk masked under an apologetic look.  He grabbed it. Mumbling a few words, walked off quickly and sat down. Carefully he re-opened the lid and started checking it. He glanced at the screen, a small flashing red dot on File Island.

Mimi watched him as his mouth went agape. _The hunt is on._ She thought as she broke into a grin and walked off into the depths of a tunnel

* * *

The Keeper of Secrets, Greater Daemon of Slaanesh looked out through its slave's eyes, a wide smile spreading across its face even as it winced from pain.

_Yes…._

_Make sure they can find that damned Bloodthirster…._

_Make sure they hunt him down…._

_Make sure they banish him my sweet slave…._

* * *

Slowly the blackness faded. Greyer, lighter, finally colour. Bit by bit his vision cleared as he woke from the last set of tortures. He feigned unconsciousness as he glimpsed the giant half-machines throughout what used to be his house. Vile abominations of daemons melded with various pieces of equipment he had. It had taken mere hours for completely harmless machines to turn into living torture devices. An involuntary groan escaped his lips.

Silence.

Everything stopped.

Turned.

Looked at him.

Stared at him.

A thousand daemonic minds. A hundred thousand different ways to torture him thought up. Slowly one of the flaming blue daemons leapt at him. It's grotesque features twisted between snarl and smile almost constantly. Flames trailed through the air behind it, rolling blue off of its body before quickly burning pink. The kaleidoscopic effect was everywhere he saw, made worse by his blurred vision. Thousands of sheets of flames leaping off of the daemons. Thousands of sheets of flame wanting to torture him. A gout of pink flame. Searing. A crater in the ground next to him. Yelping he rolled away. Tried to stand. His knees buckled and fell. Fell back to the floor in a small heap.

Laughter rang out.

Chittering.

Driving into the mind.

Insane, machine gun bursts of laughter.

Cutting.

Slicing.

Killing.

Bit by bit.

Piece by piece.

Till there would be nothing left.

Sobs escaped his parched, cracked lips as the laughter stopped. Knowing the torture itself was about to start again tears broke down his face as four burning hands hauled him up. Suddenly the tears stopped as he saw one of the machines open up. A mouth, filled with spinning drills for teeth leered at him. Oil dripped onto the ground, glooping into pools and puddles as the drills salivated. Faces leered out of the puddles before they burst into pink sheets of fire that screamed towards him. A blast of flame smashed into his face as the hands threw him towards the open maw.

Gennai screamed.

* * *

Nothing moved.

Even the wind stilled by the enormity of death.

Far over the horizon silent buildings looked out across the empty area. Not a single soul moved. Not a single soul was left to move.

Slowly a monstrous black figure approached another village, a low growling sound escaping from it as it went off. Searching for more food.

More energy.

More digimon to eat.

A line of trembling Yokomon assembled in between their homes and the rampaging giant. They knew they were going to be destroyed. Everyone on File Island knew about this giant digimon. Knew that it destroyed every digimon it could find. Everyone had heard of the tales of villages and homes blasted into craters from those brave enough to travel. Now these Yokomon knew who. Who was destroying everything. One of them looked back. All the other Yokomon were fleeing the village as fast as they could. Maybe they could buy them enough time. Maybe the evil digimon would hunt out new villages instead of chasing down a group of fleeing Yokomon. And maybe, just maybe, some miracle might happen to save them all and kill the evil mega.

"Bubble Blow!"

Slowly the giant digimon turned to face the pitiful insects as he heard the attack. A single gaze and the entire line broke, and fled. Slowly he lumbered after them, noticed a large group of Yokomon just beyond the village, and attacked.

"Venom Infusion!"

The Yokomon who were still fleeing through the village froze in terror. The entire group of Yokomon who they had been trying to buy time for disintegrated. Their data floated up towards the giant monstrosity. All of them watched as it went into and was absorbed by him. Sheer panic rooted them to the spot as another attack came crashing into them and their village.

He looked down at the crater, bits of data still disintegrating out of it that he hungrily ate. His eyes looked towards the horizon in a direction where he knew there was another village.

"Soon. Soon I will have enough energy. Soon I will have my revenge!"

* * *

PeterN: That took a long time to update. Please leave a review.


	25. Immaterium Part 25

**Immaterium (Part 25)**

****

Izzy looked up as the rest of the group as he showed them his computer. "I've managed to locate one of the Greater Daemons. Not that I yet know how I managed to bypass this one's cloaking system."

"Keep to the point Izzy. Where is it?" Tai said quickly to cut him off.

"File Island. It looks like it's moving at random. I can use my laptop to transport us there ."

"Is that really such a great idea?" Joe piped in. "I mean we all almost died last time, if you hadn't got us out of their quite so fast we would have been dead. Every time we go up against them we end up coming closer to dying."

Tai turned to face him. "They've already tried to kill us. We can't just sit here and wait for them to do it."

"Tai's right, we have to take the fight to them. Maybe we can take it by surprise." Matt added.

"Yeah. Don't be so down Joe. We beat one of them, didn't we?" TK said as he turned to face Joe.

"We can't just leave File Island. Nothing there can stand up against one of those things, or don't you think we can do it Joe…?"

"That's not what I meant Gomamon…." Joe turned to face him. "Alright guys…. You win…. Just don't blow the portal up this time Izzy."

A small round of cheers went up as Izzy started working on the laptop. Mimi stared off into space for a few moments as she recalled one of the prophecies her master had told her about. _There's no way we can beat that Bloodthirster…. Not without the extra power of two megas…. How do I make them discover that prophecy…?_

* * *

The Greater Daemon of Tzeentch swooped down towards the collapsed mountain, light glinted off of its wings and staff as the changed colours. Faces leered out of the wings, their thoughts mimicking, but different. _All in one place…. Azulongmon has grown stupid in his old age. Leaving the keys for all seven locks and the gate itself in one place. And with humans no less. This will be too easy…._

He pointed his staff down at the mostly collapsed entrance to the cavern. Blue fire spewed out of the end of the staff. A massive crack resounded through the area as the air became superheated. Everything else fell silent. Raw energy sliced through the rock, vaporising everything it touched. Stream after stream of fire slashed down at the rapidly exploding network of caves. Molten rocks flowed through the tunnels, melting everything inside. Finally the barrage of firepower stopped as the Greater Daemon crashed through the roof and landed in one of the few remaining caverns.

It looked around, no trace of the humans.

Just a rapidly dwindling portal now far too small to go through.

Slowly it levelled its staff at the portal and blasted more of the blue fire at it.

It exploded.

A display of pyrotechnics washed through the area as the Greater Daemon flew out through the hole above its head. Rock melted and fused with the ground. Colours flowed, mutated, disappeared. Bit by bit the entire mountain collapsed in on itself. Huge plumes of dust burst out from it once more as it completely collapsed, consumed by the leering and glaring faces in the pink fire.

* * *

The Greater Daemon of Slaanesh looked at the mass of electronic equipment in front of it. A dozen or so Gazimon scurried around altering the controls or adjusting something in one of the remnants of Etemon's rule. It spoke random nonsense till the Gazimon got the voice sounding perfect. _You'll never know that it wasn't Gennai that sent this little message. With this you should be able to gain more power. Enough to banish that damned servant of Khorne hopefully. Then I can make my move, and with one of your happy little group on my side still without you realising it…._

Its thoughts broke off as one of the Gazimon told it that the machines were ready to record. It cleared its throat and began saying one of the many prophecies the digital world had produced.

_"The sky will be darkened by the wings of many bats._

_The fallen people will invoke the name of the undead Digimon king._

_When the clock strikes the hour of the beast,_

_he will reveal himself as the beast and then angels will shoot arrows of hope and light at the loved ones of those they have been sent to protect,_

_and a Miracle will happen._

_Please always recycle."_

One of the Gazimon played it back.

The voice was that of Gennai.

"Send it. Now."

The Gazimon rapidly pressed some of the controls then sat back a bit more relaxed. "It's done boss."

The Greater Daemon nodded slowly before slashing him in half with one of its claws. The other Gazimon jumped up as a sphere of cream coloured energy smashed into and deleted them. _Too weak…. Too easy to kill…._

It smashed its sword down through the control panel, sparks flew out of the damage, angry buzzing protesting the wound. Slash after slash reduced every piece of equipment to sparking debris before it walked out of the room.

It turned round to face the building and pulled out a purple guitar. _You may not be my old doom siren… but you'll blow this up almost as well_. It started strumming the doom siren to warm it up. A flash of movement faster than the eye could follow and rock music blared out from the guitar. Ripples and distortions could be seen in the air and the building and the Greater Daemon watched while singing along to its own masterpiece.

Slowly the blocks of the building started to ripple themselves, bubbles formed on the surface, and exploded. Faintly a scream could be heard as the music resonated throughout the building. The equipment inside blared out their own shallow imitation of the doom siren's tune. Adding to the explosive banshee wails their own death cries. Sparks flew up, out of the equipment, as though trying to escape the torturous music. A loud creaking noise filled out the bass sections of the song as cracks ran up the exploding walls. A second of dreadful silence filled the area before the building slowly and anti-climatically crumbled into a pile of rubble in the middle of a forsaken desert.

* * *

Gennai looked up from his cell once more.

Once more amazed that he was still alive.

Still he could feel the hundreds of ways they had killed him. Every last one of them he remembered. And yet he knew there were many many more to come, all worse than the last set. Silently he hoped, prayed even, that the digidestined would kill the forces of Chaos. Every day his hope fell. Despair took over after every torture. They were never meant to take on enemies so strong. It had taken almost everything the digital world could throw at the armies of Chaos to push them back last time, and even that had been at an enormous cost. And if they did destroy the Wall of Fire… he shuddered at the thought. Thoughts best left unthought. But thoughts he couldn't help thinking about.

"Awake old man…?"

"Old man awake…?"

Gennai looked up at two of the daemons that had taken over his home. A pair of annoying blue short humanoids with giant faces. Inwardly he groaned as they started babbling mind-wrenching truths or lies about Chaos. He felt a gnawing in his head for a short while before a large daemon with flaming nozzles for hands shoved them out of the way.

"It isssss time for another torture old man…. How ssssshall we kill you today…? Perhapsssss asssssphixiation….? Or maybe we ssssshould sssssimply consssssume you…."

A burst of blue flame spouted out from one of its hands, pain seered through Gennai's left side first as the flame swept from one side of the room to the other. The smell of burning flesh and hair spread through the room. Flesh melted, peeled, fell to the floor in bubbling and molten globules. Slowly Gennai fell to his knees, no sound escaped his mouth already fused into one disfigured and deformed piece. Back and forth the all consuming flame swept as all flesh melted off of him.

Slowly the skeleton clattered to the ground as the daemon stopped the flames and walked away.

* * *

Another village of in-training types lay deserted in front of him. Every settlement he went to now empty. Completely empty. Anger coursed through him as he looked at the equally empty land around him.

"Venom Infusion!"

A large section of huts exploded into their constituent data as he took his anger out on them. His giant form rippled for a moment causing him to pause. _I still need more food._ He reached out with his senses, searching for anything. Minutes passed as he stood immobile, towering over a collection of huts built to house weak in-training digimon. Finally his head snapped up and he looked at something over the horizon, far out of his sight. He turned the rest of his body towards that direction and set off at his steady pace towards it.

Deep in thought his feet smashed apart the remaining huts and anything else directly between him and this new food source._ I do not know who you are, but an ultimate should be enough to sate my hunger._

* * *


	26. Immaterium Part 26

**Immaterium (Part 26)**

****

Explosions tore through the space where a portal once stood. Sixteen bodies threw themselves violently to the desert ground as lancing arcs of blue fire spat out, instantly vaporising the random telephone poles sticking out of the ground. The portal disappeared and everyone slowly got up.

"You just had to blow it up Izzy, didn't you?" Joe mumbled as he spat out a mouthful of sand.

"I don't think that was my doing Joe. It appeared as though something was firing attacks into the portal." Izzy replied as he quickly checked his laptop for the Greater Daemon. "Anyway, according to this program we're approximately five miles away from one of the Greater Daemons."

"What are we waiting for then?" Tai said as he started walking. "Let's go."

"Uh…. Tai…. It's this way."

"Thanks Izzy…. Do you know what one of the them we're going for?"

"No. They were somehow masking themselves from the tracking program that I got from Gennai. I'm not sure how I'm detecting this one now, but we can't tell what it is till we get close enough to s…." Izzy broke off as he glanced down at the laptop, a dancing icon of Gennai going across the screen. "We've got a message from Gennai…."

"Well open it then." Matt said as they all crowded round Izzy.

Izzy clicked a few buttons on the laptop and a familiar voice begun to come out of the speakers.

"Hello children. Here's a prophecy I found a while ago. Hopefully you'll get this in time. The sky will be darkened by the wings of many bats. The fallen people will invoke the name of the undead Digimon king. When the clock strikes the hour of the beast, he will reveal himself as the beast and then angels will shoot arrows of hope and light at the loved ones of those they have been sent to protect, and a Miracle will happen. Please always recycle."

"Well that was about as clear as mud." Sora said.

Mimi grinned as she heard the text she'd memorised. _Looks like that's taken care of. Just the damned Bloodthirster to kill now…._

Izzy hit some more keys furiously before sighing. "Just a recording…. I thought he might still be alive…."

Everyone looked at him in silence for a moment before Tai spoke up. "Still alive…? What's going on Izzy?"

"I thought I'd told you." He started, "A while back I got a message through from Gennai. He sounded in trouble, there were explosions in the background and the message just cut off before he could really say anything. I think one of those Daemons attacked him."

Silence fell over the group as they continued walking through the desert deep in thought.

* * *

The Greater Daemon of Tzeentch concentrated as a small sphere of energy coalesced in front of it. Fragments of energy spiralling around it, merging with it, rapidly building it up to a few feet across. A flash of light as the surface glazed over and an image of the collapsed mountain range could be seen on it. The picture flashed rapidly as it zoomed from the rubble wasteland to the outside, to a vast expanse of ocean. Finally it settled on sixteen figures trudging slowly through a small desert. The Greater Daemon smirked as the scrying spell homed in on its targets.

Rainbow flashes of colour glinted off of its wings as it took to the air, flying straight at the desert the scrying spell had located. Pointing its staff below itself it blasted a pink blaze of flame at the mass of rubble before disappearing into the distance.

Fire raced over the strewn boulders, pink globules fusing rocks and melting them into a gooey slop. Explosions of flame erupted out of cracks in the faintly glowing pile of rock, dust, and pink flame. A deep groaning sound echoed throughout the area as more and more rocks fell into the pinkish pool of liquid rocks and magma. Boulders shattered into shards of red hot needles as more and more eruptions lit up the sky. Slowly a giant three fingered hand shot out of the glowing magma, solid rock smashed apart as the void black hand clamped onto the nearby rocks. Still slower the hand pulled on the rocks, piece by piece pulling the rest of its body out of the dwindling pool of magma.

Finally the headless figure of magma fused chaos energy stood, towering over the remains of the mountain as it awaited the return of its master.

* * *

The beam of dark energy tore through the metal walls of the city seconds before the lumbering giant digimon walked through the gap where particles of data now drifted into the air.

"Venom Infusion!"

Buildings exploded in a shower of brightly coloured data as the powerful digimon waited for the ultimate level digimon he could feel to show itself. Another blast and another section of buildings disintegrated under the power of his attack. Another blast and he could feel the digimon much easier now, down in a smoking crater he could see his target, completely unconscious.

"You will do nicely little Andromon…. You will be enough food for me…."

Quickly he bent down and picked the limp figure up, for a brief second a smile touched the giant digimon's face before he opened his mouth and swallowed the Andromon whole.

A surge of energy rushed through his body and he laughed, blast after blast shot out from his hands. Mere seconds later a mass of data drifted up around him and the craters surrounding him.

"Now. Now I can have my revenge!"

* * *

Slowly the blackness faded away as light filtered through his eyes once more. Inwardly Gennai moaned in pain but lay still for fear of another torture session. Strangely the place was quiet, almost devoid of the inane voices that had constantly filled his home since they had invaded it. How long ago that was he didn't know. Time lost most of its meaning when you died every day, only to wake once more for another torturous death at the hands of daemons. Slowly he opened his eyes and gasped at what he saw. Instantly he regretted it as the noise attracted one of the daemons with flaming nozzles for hands.

"Awake ssssso sssssoon….?

Quickly Gennai opened his eyes fully and sat up, saw a daemon feverously working away at every computer and device he had in his house that he could see. A hissing laugh and a small squirt off flame aimed at his feet brought his attention back to the daemon near him.

"Sssssurprisssssed to sssssee that we know how to ussssse thisssss equipment….? We know that you can control the ssssshield…. You know that we know…. Ssssso why don't you jussssst drop it for usssss….? It would end thessssse pointlessssssssss torture sssssessssssssssionsssss you have to endure every sssssingle day…."

A burst of flame licked at his feet, fusing them to the ground as he screamed out in pain. He watched the daemon back away, motioning to another of its kind.

"If you wisssssh to continue thisssss we are happy to do ssssso…."

A grinding sound above his head made him look up, eyes widened in shock as millimetre by millimetre the ceiling lowered itself. Inexorably getting closer and closer.

_Why can't I just die?_

* * *

Tai looked through his mini-telescope. There in the distance was a giant read figure, at least twenty foot tall. In his hands was an equally giant axe. It was slowly moving towards something in another direction, every now and then obliterating something, or some unlucky digimon, with a well placed swing of the axe. Slowly Tai handed the mini-telescope to someone else, watching as one by one their faces showed the same look. The same mix of apprehension and fear that he felt down in his gut.

Joe looked at the group after passing on the mini-telescope to someone else. "Maybe we should take another look at that prophecy. That thing looks even more powerful than the last of the Greater Daemons we fought…."

Izzy nodded and pulled up the recording again, reading it out loud. "The sky will be darkened by the wings of many bats. The fallen people will invoke the name of the undead Digimon king. When the clock strikes the hour of the beast, he will reveal himself as the beast and then angels will shoot arrows of hope and light at the loved ones of those they have been sent to protect, and a Miracle will happen. Please always recycle."

"I don't see any bats." TK said.

"Or other people. " Kari added.

"Well the mythological number of the beast is six hundred and sixty six." Izzy said as he looked at the text on the screen of his laptop. "Although whether that has anything to do with the hour of the beast I don't know."

Tai took his telescope back and took another look. "You might want to hurry this up…. That thing's coming straight towards us…."

* * *

PeterN: Thanks for the reviews Quantum Weather Butterfly and Prince of Darkness, you're probably right with the rating, I'll up it with this update.


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